Evil Hearts
by yv1029
Summary: It's summertime and the VKs are learning how to have fun in the summer sun! Relationships are strained and the arrival of a new boy causes tension. With broken hearts and secrets, can these friends survive the summer? BOOK 3 OF LISTEN TO YOUR HEART SERIES
1. A Fresh Start

"How much longer do we have to hike?" An exhausted Audrey complained.

"Not much longer," Ben assured, leading the group with Doug holding the map and compass.

"Not used to the outdoors, princess?" Jay smirked, walking up to her.

Audrey rolled her eyes and huffed. "Well if you must know, no. My mother may have grown up in the woods but I sure have NOT! And don't call me princess!"

Jay shrugged. He stared walking in front of her. He turned back around to face her, walking backwards. "Whatever. Not like you didn't like it," he said winking.

Audrey blushed. Luckily she was already red faced from all the hiking. Yet Chad had to notice.

"Blushing there, _princess_?" He whispered in her ear, making her jump. She turned to him ready to deny when he interrupted. "No worries, I won't tel him your secret."

Audrey blushed harder and sped up. She started walking alongside Carlos, Evie, and Lonnie. She turned to Evie.

"Evie why aren't you freaked out about being stuck in the wilderness without the luxuries of Auradon?" Audrey asked.

Evie laughed. "What do you mean?"

"Well the guys I get, although no offense, but Carlos and Doug are still slightly wimpy. Lobbies a champ and raised by her mother. I thought you'd be struggling more."

"Well on the Isle we never had cell service so I'm used to being cut off from the world," Evie explained. The AKs flinched at this, knowing it was all their parent's faults. "Plus since we never had any cars or anything, were used to walking, biking, and skateboarding to get to places. So hiking is pretty easy." She smirked and walked ahead.

Audrey stopped to pout. "So I'm the only one who has a problem with staying for the whole summer in some grimy smelly cabin in the middle of nowhere, with wild animals?" She yelled.

"Well you can always walk back to Auradon," Ben chided.

Audrey screamed in frustration and stopped on the ground. She looked back where they came from and knew it was too late to go back. She looked back at her friends and saw that they were way ahead of her and were almost out of her sight.

"Wait guys!" She said, running after them. "Don't leave me here alone! I'm going to die!"

Mal took a deep breath as she got out of the taxi. Being in the countryside was different than anything she'd ever seen. But she needed a break and art camp was just the place to take her mind off the past year. She retrieved her bags and headed towards the entrance.

She was greeted by a way too peppy girl named Dove. "Hello! Welcome to camp Inspiration. You just be Mal!"

"Yeah," Mal said with fake enthusiasm. "So what do I do first?"

Dove smiled a brilliant white smile and called over a guy who Mal assumed was a counselor. He towered above Mal and had jet black hair with very green eyes.

"This is Evan. He's going to show you around." Dove explained.

Evan looked Mal up and down and smirked. "This is going to be a fun summer."

Mal couldn't help but blush as she followed Evan. She wouldn't say fun just yet, but she knew it was going to be _interesting._

"I hate this, I hate this, I hate this!" Audrey said, smacking mosquitos. Currently they were all resting, still having 3 miles left to get to the cabin."I can't believe you people do this for fun."

"Hey no complaining, you said you wanted to come," Ben said.

Audrey rolled her eyes. "Yeah but I thought we were taking a limo there, not risking death in the forest."

"Well suck it up, buttercup," jay said, chewing on some jerky.

"Ugh!" Audrey yelled in frustration. She took her time primping herself, fixing her hair and makeup that had gotten ruined due to the humidity and sweat.

Carlos was enjoying some trail Mix when he saw a lizard behind Audrey. He poked at Chad who was next to him and pointed at the lizard. "Watch this," he laughed.

He carefully ovules up the lizard and placed it on Audrey's head, no one noticing except Chad, who was trying hard to not burst out in laughter. After placing the creature on her head, Carlos immediately went back to his place. He and Chad shared a looked and started silently snickering. Now all they had to do is wait.

Of course Evie was the first to notice.

"Ew!" Evie shrieked. "Audrey there's something on your head!"

Audrey's eyes widened in horror and she felt around on the top of her head. When's he felt the lizard she let out a blood curdling shriek. She got and ran to get away from it and tripped over a root and fell.

Carlos and Chad were full out laughing in the floor at this point, to the point of tears.

"You guys are jerks you know that right!" Audrey yelled at them.

Chad tried to talk through his laughter. "It was Carlos's idea."

"That was hilarious ," Ben said. The other guys agreed.

Lonnie and Evie were not so impressed. "I agree with Audrey," Lonnie said. "You guys are jerks." She glared in Carlos and Chad's direction, specifically focusing on Chad.

She went over to help Audrey up. But as Audie tried to stand, she yelled in pain. Ben immediately rushed to her side.

"Are you okay?" He asked her.

"No, my ankle hurts," Audrey said. Ben helped her sit on a log so he could examine her ankle. It was swollen and bruised.

"Oh my," Ben said.

"Is it bad?"Audrey asked.

"Not the worst, but I think you sprained your ankle pretty bad."

"We need to take her back home," Evie said.

"No it's better if we go to the cabin and take her back tomorrow," Doug said. "It's getting late and the cabin is closer. We'll be there in and hour while going back to Auradon takes a full day."

"Doug is right," Ben said. "We'll go to the cabin and sleep there tonight and tomorrow I'll take Audrey back to Auradon and return the following day."

"No don't worry about me," Audrey said trying to stand. She winced and tried to to hide the pain in her face. "I'm fine, no need to ruin your fun. I'll stay at the cabin, no worries."

"You still shouldn't walk on your ankle," Doug said.

"I'll let you ride on my back," Ben said. "You know piggy back style."

"Fine," Audrey said. "At least I won't be all the way in the back anymore. Now it'll be Carlos."

"Hey!"

"This is your fault so suck it up!"

"Fine."

"Let's get going," Ben said.

"Yeah it's darting to get dark and by my calculations it'll take us another hour to get to the cabin," Doug said. He started walking, arm linked with Evie's. Chad and Lonnie walked behind them, Carlos in between, because things were still pretty tense between them.

Trailing behind was Jay, worried about Audrey and not liking the feeling that Ben giving Audrey a piggy back ride was giving him.


	2. In the Night

It was late when the exhausted teenagers finally reached the cabin. Ben had given up halfway on carrying Audrey, so Chad carried her the rest of the way.

"We're finally here!" Ben announced. The teenagers let out an audible sigh of relief.

"Oh thank goodness!" Audrey exclaimed. She got off of Chad's shoulders and carefully hobbled to the door with his help.

Ben unlocked the door. "Okay so there's only two rooms so the girls get one and we get one. But there's also the couch cuz there's only two beds in each room, a twin and a queen."

"Well that works out for us," Lonnie said. "Audrey will clearly get her own bed and Evie and I can share. What about you guys?"

"I'll take the couch," Jay said.

"Dougie and I can share," Chad said. Doug frowned at his nickname.

"Dude, I told you to stop calling me that in middle school," Doug groaned.

Chad smiled cheekily. "I know."

"Aw I like Dougie!" Evie said.

Doug glared at Chad. "Thanks a lot _pal."_

"No problem, _pal_ ," Chad joked.

"Well you can take the other bed, Carlos," Ben said.

"And leave you and Jay alone? I don't think so," Carlos said. "I can sleep on the floor in the living room, I don't mind."

"If you say so," Ben said.

"Okay well now that our sleeping arrangements have been made, can we get some sleep?" Audrey asked. "I'm exhausted."

"You're exhausted ?" Ben and Chad said simultaneously.

Audrey rolled her eyes. "It's not like I'm heavy."

"Well I don't know about that," Chad quipped.

"Yeah, I've seen you , you know," Ben said. "The dessert table always looks emptier after you arrive."

Audrey gasped and playfully smacked both if their arms, earning a glare from Lonnie and Jay. Carlos, Doug, and Evie noticed the sudden tension.

"Okay, time to go to sleep!" Evie announced. "Cmon Lonnie, let's help Audrey up the stairs."

Lonnie frowned. "Gladly."

To say Mal did not like her sleeping arrangements would be an understatement.

After a lengthy day touring the campus with Evan had been semi exhausting. The flyer for this art camp said it was in the city. But due to complications of venues it ended up being in the old community college in the "suburbs", which was literally in the countryside.

The campus was huge and Mal struggled to follow Evan around all day, so when he finally took her to her sleeping quarters, she was very relieved.

Unfortunately she was stuck with two roommates who were literal polar opposites. Vega was incredibly loud and sunshine and rainbows 24/7.

"Hi! I'm Vega!" She chirped as soon as Mal had entered. "You must be Mal! I'm so excited about this art camp. I'm not the best artist but I have passion and what's more important than that?"

"Talent," Sasha dead panned. Sasha was the complete opposite of Vega. She was dreary and depressing, sucking the life out of everything. She also had snide remarks to everything Vega said.

After two hours of their nonstop arguing, Mal had had enough.

"Okay, seriously stop!" Mal yelled. "I came here to find some peace after an eventful year. Not to hear you two clicking like chickens. So please shut up! Vega you're way to happy, and that's okay, but you don't have to try to convert everyone to happy little elves like you!"

Vega frowned and Sasha laughed. Mal turned to Sasha.

"And you, I don't know what goes on in your life to make you so depressed and cynical, and trust me I love a good sarcastic remark, but you don't have to be bringing everybody down, especially people like Vega who just want everyone to be happy. So if you'll excuse me, I'd love to sleep in silence. Goodnight!"

Mal turned over in her bed and covered herself with her blanket, expecting to hear more arguing, but it was silent. Mal smiled and drifted off to sleep.

Helping Audrey up the stairs was easier said than done. Chad and Ben had to help her up and Evie led her the rest of the way to the room.

"I hate this so much!" Audrey groaned. "I feel useless!"

"Oh I'm so sorry," Lonnie remarked. Audrey frowned and Evie have her a look.

"Lonnie are you okay? You've been kind of quiet since we got here," Evie said.

"I'm fine," Lonnie lied.

"No you're not," Audrey said. "You been giving me dirty looks all day. Did I do something?"

"I don't know. Why don't you ask your two faced boyfriend stealing self that?"

Audrey add Evie shared a look of understanding. "Is this about Chad, Lonnie?" Evie asked.

"Oh gosh no! I don't like him like that!" Audrey said. "We're just friends. I would never intrude on someone who I knew my friend liked. That's just girl code 101."

Lonnie smiled. "I know you wouldn't. Gosh I don't know why I got jealous. You're not that type of girl. I'm sorry."

"It's fine."

"I knew you weren't that type of friend. I mean you stepped back for Crys-"

"Psh. Girl why are you even bringing that up? I don't-" Evie have Audrey a look. "Ok fine. I did step back for Crystal. And I may have some feelings for Jay. Or maybe I don't. I honestly don't know how I feel it where I stand or if I'm even doing anything right! I mean Florian dumped me and it really hurt, you know?"

Lonnie and Evie gave her sympathetic looks.

"I know how you feel.." Lonnie said.

It was 3 am and Audrey couldn't sleep. She tried to turn in her bed, with serious discomfort, to look at her sleeping friends beside her. They were both sound asleep, Lonnie even snoring a little.

She carefully got up from her bed and hobbled to where her stuff was. She didn't want to be a burden to her friends and thought it'd be better if she left on her own.

She grabbed her bags and carefully and quietly walked down the stairs. Her ankle burned at every step but she tried to hold back her tears. When she finally reached the end of the stairs she carefully crept around a sleeping Carlos. She accidentally stepped on a loose floorboard and it creaked. She winced and froze hoping she didn't wake anyone up. Jay stirred, but stayed sound asleep. Audrey let out a a sigh of relief and kept walking.

Outside, everything was pitch black and Audrey could hardly see anything. She cursed herself for forgetting a flashlight. She considered going back, but she was already too far away to see in which direction the cabin was. Suddenly she heard leaves crunching behind her.

The footsteps started to sound closer, or it was Audrey's heartbeat. Either way she couldn't think due to the sound in her head. She tried to walk faster but it hurt with every step she took. Her able was on fire now, but the adrenaline masked the pain. Suddenly the footsteps were right behind her and she felt a hand on her shoulder. She screamed and turned around. She lost her balance and fell, hearing a crack on the way down.

"Shh! It's me Audrey!" The person said, bringing their flashlight to their face.

"Jay?!"

A/N

Sorry for the confusion guys. I realized that I had forgotten to upload a chapter in the middle. So I'm going to be reposting all the chapters correctly this time. Thank you for your patience.


	3. A Series of Unfortunate Events

Jane took a deep breath. She hated this. After saying goodbye to her friends, the limo took her mother and her to the airport where she said goodbye to her mother. She hated airplanes.

Getting off the airplane, a counselor was waiting for her and led her to a car. Then they began driving. And driving. And driving.

Jane took another deep breath and began to fidget with her fingers. She stared longingly out the window. She hated being away from all her friends, and especially from her mother. Just when she began to feel normal, she had to go and ruin it.

And now she was in a car that had been driving for who knows how long on the way to some camp in the middle of nowhere to try to fix whatever issues Jane had. And she was not too thrilled about it.

Her counselor also gave her a funny feeling feeling. Almost as if she didn't completely trust the strange lady. She seemed all too perky and nice, coming off as not genuine. She said her name was Dr. Gilbert, but would also accept Claire. Jane didn't like the whole idea of this rehab, but she had no choice. She wanted to get better, she really did.

The car came to a halt and Jane realized they had arrived to the rehab center. It was a large stone building that resembled a hospital. It gave Jane chills. Claire opened the door for her, as their driver was removing Jane's bags from the trunk.

Claire gave her a big smile showing off her too many teeth. "Are you ready?" She asked.

Jane gave a polite smile. "As ready as I'll ever be."

Audrey could feel the pain that shot shoot up her leg but she tried her best to ignore it.

"Jay?" She questioned. "What are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same question," he countered.

Audrey huffed and rolled her eyes. "This is not the time for jokes!"

"Hardly," Jay said, rolling his eyes as well. "Why did you leave the cabin?"

"Cuz I can.."

"Not with a sprained ankle."

"Yes I can."

"Audrey, no you can't. You could've seriously hurt yourself."

"Since when do you care?"

"Audrey.."

"Look, I didn't want to be a hassle so I thought I could find my way back to Auradon," Audrey explained.

Jay frowned. "With no idea where you are, how to get back, no supplies and an injury? Have you completely lost your mind?!"

Audrey scoffed. "Like its hard?"

"Really?"

"Ok, so maybe I didn't think this true."

"Clearly."

"Whatever. Can you help me up?" Audrey asked.

Jay held out a hand and hoisted Audrey up. As soon as Audrey tried to stand, she let out a yelp and fell against Jay.

"Audrey, are you okay?" Jay asked, worried. "What's wrong?"

Audrey was crying at this point, in so much pain. Jay lifted her up bridal style and carried her to a rock and sat her down. He pulled out a flashlight from his pocket and inspected her ankle. It was bruised and swelling like crazy.

"Oh no," Jay sighed.

"What?!" Audrey asked.

"There's a great chance that that cracking sound we heard was your ankle," Jay said. "I'm no doctor but I'm pretty sure you just fractured your ankle."

"It hurts so bad."

"I know."

"Can you help me get back to the cabin?"

"About that," Jay said scratching the back of his neck. "I was following so I don't exactly know how to get back.

"This can't be happening!" Audrey cried.

Jay felt bad for her and sat on the rock beside her. She laid her head on his shoulder and cried.

"Could this get any worse?!" She cried. As if on cue, a giant lightning bolt illuminated the sky, and rain began to pelt them. Audrey began to cry harder and Jay was at a loss.

"Oh come on!" Audrey yelled. "Why universe, why?"

"Audrey calm down," Jay said.

She turned to him. "Why should I? Today has officially been the worst day of my life!"

"Ok I know today has been rough, but screaming at the sky does not change things, it only make you look crazy." Jay said.

Audrey giggled at that last comment. Jay smiled, happy he made her smile.

"Ok, so what do we do?" Audrey said.

"Well all we can do is to try to retrace our steps and try to find our way back to the cabin."

"In this rain?"

"We're already soaked," Jay smirked.

"Ok, but what about my ankle?"

"No worries."

"Jay what do you- ah!"

Jay scooped Audrey up and carried her bridal style. He told off his jacket and gave it to Audrey to keep her slightly warmer.

"Ready?" He asked.

"Sure."


	4. Maybes

"Are we there yet?" An exasperated Audrey asked. "It seems like we've been walking around in circles."

"No, for the 50th time, we are NOT there," Jay groaned under her weight. Carrying Audrey had proved to be inefficient so he had switched to carrying Audrey on his back.

"Ugh," she sighed. "I'm so tired."

"Ok, we're done," Jay said.

"Wait what do you-oof!" Jay placed Audrey on a nearby rock and sat next to her. "Why are we stopping?"

"Because it's late, we have no idea where we're going, and my muscles ache," Jay stated.

"Ugh fine. Then I guess we'll just get some rest." Audrey sighed. "At least the rain stopped."

Jay let out a humorless laugh. "Not before we got soaked to the bone."

Audrey rolled her eyes. "I'm trying to be optimistic."

"Yeah well I'm exhausted so my optimism ran out."

"Whatever," Audrey sighed. "Why do I even try? Goodnight." Audrey turned around and laid on the ground, her back to Jay.

"Audrey, really?" Jay asked. _This girl will be the death of me_ , he looked over at Audrey's peaceful sleeping form and smiled. _Or maybe not..._

Mal awoke well rested and to peace and quiet. She found it odd that there was absolute silence. She looked around the room and sure enough the other girls were gone.

"What time is it?" Mal yawned. She reached over for her phone and saw that the time read 9:47. "Crap!" She said, jumping out of bed.

Breakfast ended at 9 and her first class had started at 9:30. No wonder her roommates were nowhere to be seen. Mal had overslept and was already late on her first day.

She scrambled around, trying to look semi decent and grabbed her bag from the floor. She ran out of her room and into something solid.

"Woah there," the guy said.

Mal looked and saw that she had ran straight into Evan.

"Sorry, I guess I wasn't looking Mal said.

Evan chuckled. "Nah, its good. Why in such a hurry?"

"Cuz I'm late to my art class. I overslept."

"Oh well then I won't keep you longer," Evan smiled. "See you 'round." Evan walked and waved at her. "Hopefully soon," he winked.

Mal blushed. _No, stop it Mal! That's not why you're here. Art! And only art!_

Mal looked back at Evan's retreating figure. Maybe a little fun wouldn't hurt.


	5. Missing

The sun was barely climbing over the horizon and birds were beginning to chirp. Jay awoke to the bright light in his face. He tried to roll over to the opposite side, but found he couldn't really move. He looked down and saw that Audrey was nestled into his chest, his arm under her. He could feel her warm breath on his neck. It was making him both warm and uncomfortable. He didn't know whether to wake her up and watch her freak out or stay in their current position because honestly he was really comfortable.

Audrey felt something moving her. She felt extremely warm; a lot warmer than she had remembered feeling last night. She felt something holding her and lifted her head to look up. She hit Jay square in the jaw.

"What the.." Audrey said, realizing her position. She immediately tried to get up, to no avail, causing her ankle to have a sudden burst of pain.

"Audrey chill, your ankle," Jay warned.

"How can I "chill" when you and I- we- what? Ugh!" Audrey shrieked.

"When we cuddled?" Jay said.

Audrey huffed. "Yeah that! Why would you take advantage of the situation that I couldn't move and make a move on me?"

Jay furrowed his brows. "I'm excuse me princess, but you weren't exactly complaining last night. Besides neither one of us were in our positions from last night, so it takes two."

"That still doesn't make it okay," Audrey said.

"Oh like you didn't enjoy it," Jay smirked.

"As if," Audrey said, looking away so he couldn't see her blush.

However Jay noticed. "Whatever you say princess, whatever you say."

"Guys! Guys!" Evie exclaimed running down the stairs and waking up the boys. Lonnie, Chad and Ben followed her. She ran into the kitchen and frantically searched.

"What's going on?" Ben asked.

"Audrey wasn't in our room when we woke up," Lonnie explained.

"She's nowhere to be found!" Evie cried.

"Uh guys?" Carlos called from the living room. The four teens walked into the room.

"Jay's gone too."

"Okay Jane, today's therapy will be very relaxed and carefree," a man who introduced himself as Dr. Ramos said.

"Yes, sir." Jane replied, almost automatically.

Dr. Ramos's face crinkled in disgust. "No need to be formal Jane. In fact, why don't you call me Dr. Gabriel?"

Jane frowned. She had a bad feeling about this. "I don't know. That doesn't seem right."

Dr. Gabriel took her hands. "I'm here to help you and make you feel better. I think the first step is to make you comfortable around me. So if you don't want to be on a first name basis that's fine. So why don't you start by talking a little about yourself?"

Jane laughed nervously. "Well what do you want to know?"

"Anything. The point is to make you more comfortable opening up to me so we can find a solution to your problems."

Jane took a deep breath. "Okay. We'll, my name is Jane Flitter. Ridiculous I know, but both of my parents are fae. Well, was. My father died when I was really young-"

"Please continue," Dr Gabriel pressed. "It's okay."

"That's all I know," Jane said. "I don't know how or when he died." She started tearing up.

"Why?"

Jane sniffled. "Mother never liked talking about him. When I was a little girl I would ask about my father, and she would always avoid the subject. People at school started to tease me because they thought my dad left us. It wasn't until recently my mom told me he had passed. But that's all she said. It's almost as if she doesn't want me to ever find out. As if I had something to do with it..."

"What do you mean he's gone?" Ben asked.

"I don't know!" Carlos answered. "I just woke up cuz of Evie's screams and saw that Jay is nowhere to be seen."

Lonnie smirked. "So you mean to tell me that Audrey and Jay "coincidentally" disappeared at the same time."

Chad laughed. "Would you look at that?"

Evie frowned. "Guys I don't think so. This could be something serious."

Ben chuckled. "I don't know, Evie. It might be, but then again..."

"Do you think something finally snapped?" Chad smiled.

"Wait what?" A confused Carlos asked. "What are you guys talking about? You mean to tell me that Jay and Audrey like each other?"

Lonnie laughed. "Have you been living under a rock. It's so obvious."

Carlos frowned indignantly. "No. I've just been a little preoccupied and distracted."

"Like with a certain small brown haired blue eyed fairy?" Chas smirked.

Carlos blushed. "No..."

"That's so cute!" Lonnie giggled.

"Guys!" Evie said. "As cute as Carlos and Jane are as a couple-"

"-not a couple!" Carlos defended.

"-shouldn't we be more focused on finding Audrey and Jay?"

Chad jumped onto the couch and turned on the tv. "Nah. I say we let those two lovebirds duke it out and let them come to us when everything is resolved."

"But-"

"Evie don't worry about it." Ben said. "I'm sure they're fine and are probably on their way back now." He went into the kitchen with Lonnie to prepare breakfast with Lonnie while Carlos and Chas played video games on the tv.

"I hope you're right, Ben." Evie sighed. "I really hope you're right."


	6. Confrontations

Mal ran as fast as she could to her class and stormed through the door, earning her the attention of everyone.

"Well, Miss Green, you have decided to show up," an elderly woman, who Mal presumed to be the art teacher said. "It's so nice of you to finally join us. But let me be clear, this is the first and last time you are late for my class."

"Yes ma'am," Mal said, softly.

"You may take your seat," the teacher commented when Mal stayed in her place.

"Yes ma'am. Of course ma'am." Mal felt stupid and embarrassed. It didn't help that the girl in the front of the class snickered obnoxiously loud.

"Wow I knew VKs were bad, but I didn't peg them as slow either," she said to her friend.

Mal scowled and looked to the teacher, but she didn't do anything or say a word to the girl. She only smirked.

Map got her stuff out of her bag. _This is going to be a long summer,_ she thought.

"Come on! Ow! Come on! Ow!" Audrey yelled as she was pacing trying to get a signal on her phone.

"Audrey, stop that's not going to work," Jay said. "And besides your ankle."

"My ankle is fine!" Audrey persisted. "Ow!"

"Seriously!" Jay got up from his log and snatched Audrey's phone out of her hand and dragged her to the log. "You need to rest your ankle."

"I'm fine!"

"Gosh you're so stubborn!" Jay said. He lifted her ankle and placed it on his lap. Her ankle had swollen even more and was turning more purple by the minute.

Audrey was wide eyed with horror. She knew it was bad, but she wasn't going to admit it. "See? Perfectly fine!"

Jay rolled his eyes. "Your ankle is more swollen than a pregnant woman's. "

"Hey!," Audrey hit him. "Rude!"

Jay chuckled. "No but seriously, we need to find you medical help. According to my watch it's 9:34 so we better get a move on and not waste precious daylight."

"Well then lets not waste a minute!" She got up quickly and twisted her ankle slightly. She muffled her cries and faked a smile. "Lets go!" She started to walk but was limping and cringing.

"Audrey, let me help you," jay said.

"No I'm fine!" Audrey kept walking but her ankle gave out and she almost fell, hadn't it been for Jay catching her.

"I'm helping you princess, whether you want me to or not." Jay helped her get on his back.

"You know this is completely unnecessary," Audrey said.

"I wouldn't be complaining if I were you. I know there's a small village east so we're gonna do our best to find it."

"How exactly are you going to do that?" Audrey asked incredulously.

Jay pointed at a tree. "You see that tree over there? Moss always grows on the north side of it so we can figure out which way is east."

"How do you know that?"

"Carlos was obsessed with reading every nature guide and almanac before heading out." Jay explained. "I picked something up."

"Just like you picked up name meanings?" Audrey smirked.

"Kind of," Jay shrugged. "But it's no big deal."

"You know Jay?" Audrey said. "You're a lot smarter than you think you are."

Jay couldn't help but smile at her words, but he quickly shrugged it off. "Whatever you say princess, lets go."

Jane looked around at the other kids at the clinic. Some looked better and some looked worse. And one boy in particular kept staring at her. And it was creeping her out.

She looked down at food on her plate. Fresh fruit and oatmeal. Her favorite. Except that every time she looked at it or smelled it, she felt like vomiting. She knew she had to eat, but the food looked unappetizing. Her stomach gurgled.

"Jane, you need to eat something," Clara, one of the nurses said. "At least eat some fruit. If you can do that for me, then you may go to your room for quiet time."

"Ok," Jane said meekly. She tried her best to choke down her berries and some apples. Her stomach stopped growling and she didn't feel too nauseated. "May I go now?"

Clara smiled. "Of course, but tomorrow I want you to try some oatmeal."

"Yes ma'am." Jane cleaned up her plate and went to her room. She looked back at the other kids who didn't want to eat. The boy who had been looking at her ran up to her.

"Hello," he said, extending out his hand. "I'm Navi and I'm 12. Would you like to be my friend?"

Jane was taken aback by his forwardness. "Sure," she replied. "I guess a friend here wouldn't hurt."

"I've been here a couple months and you're the first person who has come whom I know is a truly kind soul. I'm so glad you'll be my friend!" Navi hugged Jane. Jane was taken off guard but ended up hugging him back.

"Well it's my pleasure," Jane giggled. She was surprised by her reaction, because it had been a long time since she had smiled.

"So if you know how to find directions using grass-" Audrey asked.

"Moss," Jay corrected.

"Ok moss, whatever. Why can't you just take us back to the cabin?" Audrey finished.

"Because I have no idea which direction the cabin is in," Jay said. "Doug was the one leading and I was too busy arguing with Carlos and being distracted with your blatant flirting with Chad and Ben. You know just cuz they're your exes and are single doesn't mean their ex girlfriends won't skin you alive."

Audrey rolled her eyes. "You and Carlos are such children. Who honestly cares what mushrooms are poisonous and which bark makes the best food. And as for Chad and Ben, they're exes and Mal and Lonnie don't have to worry about me. Those two are so gone for them that they'll never look at another girl-wait!"

"What?"

Audrey furrowed her brows. "Why were you distracted by that?"

Jay blushed. "I wasn't."

"You just said and I quote 'I was too busy being distracted by my blatant flirting with Ben and Chad," Audrey smirked.

"I recall no such thing."

Audrey smacked her lips. "I'm pretty sure that's what you said."

"Nope. Maybe you've been in the sun too long princess and now you're imagining things." Jay babbled.

"No way," Audrey defended. "Oh my gosh. Were you jealous?"

Jay frowned and blushed harder. "What? No! Why would you think that?"

"You are literally turning into a tomato right now," Audrey smirked.

"You're crazy," Jay said. He stopped so Audrey could hop off his back. He turned around to look at her. "I was not jealous. Why would I be?"

Audrey looked him square in the eye. "I don't know. You tell me."


	7. Renewal

p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia;"span style="font-size: 16pt;"Mal sighed with relief when her teacher dismissed the class. Her hand was sore after the massive amount of notes she had to write. Most of it was stuff she already knew, but she write notes anyway because she was already in hot water with Mrs. Wellington. /span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia; min-height: 18.2px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia;"span style="font-size: 16pt;"She gathered her belongings and was about to leave when her sketchbook fell. Her drawings, paintings, and sketches flew all over the room./span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia; min-height: 18.2px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia;"span style="font-size: 16pt;""What a joke," the same girl from earlier smirked. /span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia; min-height: 18.2px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia;"span style="font-size: 16pt;""Okay what is your problem- uh-"/span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia; min-height: 18.2px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia;"span style="font-size: 16pt;""Tessa."/span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia; min-height: 18.2px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia;"span style="font-size: 16pt;""Right," Mal sighed. "Look I don't mean to start anything but-"/span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia; min-height: 18.2px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia;"span style="font-size: 16pt;""Enough!" Mrs. Wellington reprimanded. "Clean up this mess immediately." With that she turned on her heel and left the room. /span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia; min-height: 18.2px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia;"span style="font-size: 16pt;"Tessa knelt down to tear a page away from Mal who was scrambling to gather her belongings. She had to admit, the VK had talent, but there was no way she was going to let Mal take her coveted spot in the art showcase./span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia; min-height: 18.2px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia;"span style="font-size: 16pt;""Mess is putting it lightly," Tessa smirked. "I've seen children draw better than this." She crumpled it up and threw it in the garbage bin./span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia; min-height: 18.2px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia;"span style="font-size: 16pt;""What are you doing?" Mal demanded as she made a dash for the bin. /span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia; min-height: 18.2px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia;"span style="font-size: 16pt;""Oops," Tessa laughed./span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia; min-height: 18.2px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia;"span style="font-size: 16pt;"Mal's eyes lit up green. "I really don't appreciate your attitude. If you don't leave me alone I'll-"/span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia; min-height: 18.2px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia;"span style="font-size: 16pt;""You'll what?" Tessa smiled. "Hurt me? Last time I checked you're a VK and you have certain conditions you must follow or was the whole choosing good just for the cameras?"/span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia; min-height: 18.2px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia;"span style="font-size: 16pt;""You're not from Auradon, are you?"/span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia; min-height: 18.2px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia;"span style="font-size: 16pt;""No, I live in the countryside with my mother. But we definitely watched the televised spectacle that was the coronation," Tessa laughed. "I mean, if it wasn't for Ben being your boyfriend you'd have to be as neat as a pin."/span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia; min-height: 18.2px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia;"span style="font-size: 16pt;""Um, actually Ben and I aren't dating," Mal answered awkwardly./span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia; min-height: 18.2px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia;"span style="font-size: 16pt;"Tessa smirked. "Well then, you have a lot to worry about. You can't do anything to me, because if you do, you'll be shipped off right back to the Isle, and you don't want that, do you?"/span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia; min-height: 18.2px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia;"span style="font-size: 16pt;"Mal looked at the floor. "No," she replied softly./span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia; min-height: 18.2px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia;"span style="font-size: 16pt;"Tessa laughed. "That's what I thought." She left Mal alone to ponder if she really had been getting special treatment because of Ben. /span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia;"span style="font-size: 16pt;"********************************/span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia;"span style="font-size: 16pt;"Jay panted as he finished carrying Audrey up the hillside. She may not be heavy but climbing up the steep ground could easily make it feel like he was carrying someone double her size./span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia; min-height: 18.2px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia;"span style="font-size: 16pt;""Jay, are we there yet?" Audrey asked. "It's getting dark. We've been walking around for hours and still nothing but trees."/span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia; min-height: 18.2px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia;"span style="font-size: 16pt;"Jay rolled his eyes. "Yeah you must be so exhausted."/span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia; min-height: 18.2px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia;"span style="font-size: 16pt;""Don't be snarky."/span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia; min-height: 18.2px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia;"span style="font-size: 16pt;""Sorry but I really tired. The town shouldn't be much farther. So stop your complaining and just let me do my thing."/span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia; min-height: 18.2px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia;"span style="font-size: 16pt;"Audrey huffed. "Whatever."/span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia; min-height: 18.2px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia;"span style="font-size: 16pt;"******************************/span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia;"span style="font-size: 16pt;""Guys it's getting late," Evie said. "The sun is setting and Jay and Audrey are still nowhere to be found."/span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia; min-height: 18.2px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia;"span style="font-size: 16pt;""Go Jay!" Chad joked. Lonnie elbowed him. "Ow."/span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia; min-height: 18.2px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia;"span style="font-size: 16pt;""Maybe Evie's right," Carlos spoke up. "What if something happened to them."/span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia; min-height: 18.2px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia;"span style="font-size: 16pt;""Considering neither one of them know their way around the forest, it is very likely they got lost," Doug deduced. /span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia; min-height: 18.2px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia;"span style="font-size: 16pt;""Well it's too late to look for them now," Ben said. "First thing tomorrow morning we'll set out to look for them."/span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia; min-height: 18.2px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia;"span style="font-size: 16pt;""Carlos, Doug, it's our turn to cook dinner," Evie said. "Ben, you Chad and Lonnie go get firewood."/span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia; min-height: 18.2px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia;"span style="font-size: 16pt;""Do I have to?" Lonnie whispered in Evie's ear. She looked in Chad's direction. "I relay don't want to be with a certain person."/span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia; min-height: 18.2px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia;"span style="font-size: 16pt;"Even sighed. "I know, but setting firewood is a three person job and no offense but you're more manly than Carlos or my boyfriend."/span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia; min-height: 18.2px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia;"span style="font-size: 16pt;""We heard that!" Carlos said indignantly./span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia; min-height: 18.2px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia;"span style="font-size: 16pt;""Fine then you want to go fetch firewood."/span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia; min-height: 18.2px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia;"span style="font-size: 16pt;""On second thought," Carlos said. "Lonnie you totally got this!"/span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia; min-height: 18.2px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia;"span style="font-size: 16pt;"Evie's rolled her eyes. "See?"/span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia; min-height: 18.2px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia;"span style="font-size: 16pt;"Lonnie sighed. "Fine."/span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia;"span style="font-size: 16pt;"***************************/span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia;"span style="font-size: 16pt;""Hey Ben, there's more wood over there," Chad said, pointing at a pile of logs. "It doesn't look wet."/span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia; min-height: 18.2px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia;"span style="font-size: 16pt;""Okay, I'll take this pile and you two should start heading back to the cabin with what we already gathered and I'll catch up," ben instructed./span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia; min-height: 18.2px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia;"span style="font-size: 16pt;""Ok."/span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia; min-height: 18.2px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia;"span style="font-size: 16pt;""Fine."/span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia; min-height: 18.2px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia;"span style="font-size: 16pt;"Chad and Lonnie started heading back to the cabin. It was extremely awkward. Lonnie was upset and Chad was clueless, as per usual. /span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia; min-height: 18.2px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia;"span style="font-size: 16pt;"Finally Chad couldn't stand the silence. "Ok why won't you talk to me?"/span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia; min-height: 18.2px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia;"span style="font-size: 16pt;""I didn't think you'd want to talk to me," Lonnie quipped, but looking at him./span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia; min-height: 18.2px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia;"span style="font-size: 16pt;""And why is that?"/span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia; min-height: 18.2px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia;"span style="font-size: 16pt;""That's what your girlfriend's for."/span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia; min-height: 18.2px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia;"span style="font-size: 16pt;"Chad stopped in his tracks. "What girlfriend?"/span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia; min-height: 18.2px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia;"span style="font-size: 16pt;"Lonnie rolled her eyes. He was good at playing innocent. "You know who. Ren."/span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia; min-height: 18.2px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia;"span style="font-size: 16pt;"Chad burst out laughing. "What? Ren? We're not dating. I don't have a girlfriend. I haven't even gone out with anyone since we broke up."/span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia; min-height: 18.2px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia;"span style="font-size: 16pt;"That made Lonnie stop in her tracks. "What?"/span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia; min-height: 18.2px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia;"span style="font-size: 16pt;"Chad calmed down. "Ren is just my friend. In fact she was helping me come up with ways to get you back."/span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia; min-height: 18.2px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia;"span style="font-size: 16pt;"Lonnie frowned. She didn't know whether to believe him or not. "But I overheard you two talking about dinner plans."/span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia; min-height: 18.2px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia;"span style="font-size: 16pt;""She was going to go to convince my mom to let me date you."/span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia; min-height: 18.2px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia;"span style="font-size: 16pt;""What did your mom say?"/span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia; min-height: 18.2px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia;"span style="font-size: 16pt;""It doesn't matter," Chad answered truthfully. "No ones opinion about matters but mine. And how I feel." He dropped his wood and walked over to Lonnie, taking her hands, causing her to drop her pile too. /span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia; min-height: 18.2px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia;"span style="font-size: 16pt;""And- and what would that be?" Lonnie stuttered./span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia; min-height: 18.2px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia;"span style="font-size: 16pt;"Chad smiled at her nervousness. It was rare to see Lonnie unsure of herself. "Well I think you are the most stubborn, headstrong, jealous, -"/span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia; min-height: 18.2px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia;"span style="font-size: 16pt;"Lonnie scoffed and rolled her eyes. /span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia; min-height: 18.2px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia;"span style="font-size: 16pt;""- amazing, beautiful, intelligent, driven, wonderful girl I've ever met," Chad finished. /span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia; min-height: 18.2px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia;"span style="font-size: 16pt;"Lonnie smiled. "Really? You really mean that?"/span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia; min-height: 18.2px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia;"span style="font-size: 16pt;""Every word," Chad smiled. /span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia; min-height: 18.2px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia;"span style="font-size: 16pt;"Lonnie bit her lip and went for it. She did the thing she had been wanting to do for a while. She kissed Chad. He wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her closer to him. She giggled against his lips./span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia; min-height: 18.2px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia;"span style="font-size: 16pt;""Get a room you two!" Ben yelled, coming up behind them. "And pick up the wood and hurry up!" He kept walking towards the cabin./span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia; min-height: 18.2px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia;"span style="font-size: 16pt;""You're just jealous!" Chad yelled after him. /span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia; min-height: 18.2px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia;"span style="font-size: 16pt;"Ben didn't turn around but gave Chad the bird./span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia; min-height: 18.2px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia;"span style="font-size: 16pt;""That's not very kingly!" Chad joked as he held Lonnie. /span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia; min-height: 18.2px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia;"span style="font-size: 16pt;""Dude, I don't really care!" Ben yelled. /span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia; min-height: 18.2px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia;"span style="font-size: 16pt;"Lonnie and Chad laughed. She turned to him and kissed him on the lips. "So what does this mean?"/span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia; min-height: 18.2px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia;"span style="font-size: 16pt;""It means," Chad knelt down on one knee. He pulled out an acorn. "Lonnie Li, will you take me back as your boyfriend again?"/span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia; min-height: 18.2px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia;"span style="font-size: 16pt;"Lonnie giggled. "But what about your mother?"/span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia; min-height: 18.2px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia;"span style="font-size: 16pt;""We'll worry about her later. All that's matters now is that I'm with you."/span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia; min-height: 18.2px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia;"span style="font-size: 16pt;"Lonnie's heart swelled. She smiled. "Then yes I will take you back."/span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia; min-height: 18.2px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia;"span style="font-size: 16pt;""Really?" Chad kept up and picked her up and spun her around. Lonnie laughed. "This is amazing."/span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia; min-height: 18.2px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia;"span style="font-size: 16pt;""I know," Lonnie said. "But you know what this means right?"/span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia; min-height: 18.2px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia;"span style="font-size: 16pt;""What?"/span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia; min-height: 18.2px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia;"span style="font-size: 16pt;""We have to help fix our friends."/span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia; min-height: 18.2px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia;"span style="font-size: 16pt;"Chad frowned. "Isn't meddling Mal's thing?"/span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia; min-height: 18.2px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia;"span style="font-size: 16pt;""It is, but when Mal is the one that needs helping, I think it's only fair we step in, right?"/span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia; min-height: 18.2px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia;"span style="font-size: 16pt;""This is why I love you."/span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia; min-height: 18.2px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia;"span style="font-size: 16pt;""Love?" /span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia; min-height: 18.2px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia;"span style="font-size: 16pt;"Chad blushed. "Um yeah, unless you don't-"/span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia; min-height: 18.2px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia;"span style="font-size: 16pt;"Lonnie giggled. "I love you too."/span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia; min-height: 18.2px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia;"span style="font-size: 16pt;""Oh that's great and all, but we really need that wood," Ben said, ruining their little moment./span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia; min-height: 18.2px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia;"span style="font-size: 16pt;"Chad rolled his eyes. "Ugh fine."/span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia; min-height: 18.2px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia;"span style="font-size: 16pt;""Let me help you," Ben chuckled. /span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia; min-height: 18.2px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia;"span style="font-size: 16pt;""I'm going to go help Evie," Lonnie said heading off to the cabin. /span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia; min-height: 18.2px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia;"span style="font-size: 16pt;""Love, man?" Ben asked. "It's so unlike you to use that word."/span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia; min-height: 18.2px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia;"span style="font-size: 16pt;"Chad blushed. "Yeah well man, when it's the one, you just know. And you should always tell her." He followed after Lonnie./span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia; min-height: 18.2px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia;"span style="font-size: 16pt;"Ben held back. "Yeah you always should.."/span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia; min-height: 18.2px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia; min-height: 18.2px;" /p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-family: Georgia; min-height: 18.2px;" /p 


	8. Return

Audrey winced at the bright light in her face and rubbed her eyes. She was exhausted. She opened her eyes to a very bright room. She was in a bed which was surprisingly comfortable and Jay was sprawled on a chair next to her. Her ankle felt better than it did the day before. Now it was down to a slow throbbing.

"Jay!" She whispered. "Jay!"

Nothing.

"Jay!" She whispered louder. That finally got his attention. Jay stirred.

"What?" He asked half asleep.

"Where are we?" Audrey asked, completely disoriented.

Jay frowned at being woken up and stood up to stretch. "We are at a little motel in probably the smallest town I have ever seen. The owner is a really nice lady."

Audrey was still confused. "How did we get here? I honestly don't remember."

Jay smiled smugly. "Oh you don't remember when you were tired and asked to take a break so you took a nap?"

"No. I remember that perfectly. It's everything else afterwards where I'm drawing a blank."

"Your 'nap' turned into you literally knocking out. It was getting late so I just carried you into town," Jay explained. "You are a surprisingly deep sleeper."

"That would explain everything," Audrey said, noticing her surrounding. The room was small but spacious with a window facing the town. The town was as small as Jay said. Only a couple stores and hotels dotted the landscape.

"You wanna know something else?" Jay asked mischievously.

"What?"

"After sleeping around you for two days I have come to terms with the fact that if an earthquake were to happen or a bulldozer passed by I wouldn't be able to notice due to your obnoxiously loud snoring."

"Hey!" Audrey threw a pillow at jay, hitting him square in the face. "I do not snore!"

"Yeah you do," Jay laughed. "You might need to go see a doctor about that. It's like a garbage disposal, or two moose fighting."

"Princesses do not snore!"

"Well then you better take a DNA test because this princess does," Jay snickered. Audrey threw more pillows at him and soon enough they were having a pillow fight, where unsurprisingly Audrey was winning.

"You know, for someone who is fit and built, you are really easy to take down," Audrey laughed. "Maybe you're not as tough as you say you are."

"Oh really?" Before Audrey could comprehend what what was happening, jay picked her up over his shoulder.

"Jay! Put me down!"

"Gladly." Jay dropped Audrey on the bed and started tickling her. Audrey burst out laughing.

"Jay! Stop!" Audrey said between giggles.

"Not until you admit that I am the toughest most awesome dude in Auradon!"

"How-about-no?" Audrey said.

"Am I interrupting something?" They both immediately turned their heads to see an elderly woman standing by the door with a small tray.

"What? No," Audrey said quickly, sitting and fixing her hair.

"We were just messing around," Jay said blushing.

The woman gave him a knowing look and smiled. "I brought you kids some breakfast."

"Thank you, ma'am," Audrey said. "You have been so kind. How much was the stay?" She pulled out her purse.

"Oh no," the woman said. "Put that away. This stay is complimentary. This nice young man explained your situation and I'm more than happy to host such a nice young couple."

"Well, actually-" Jay began.

"- we appreciate it," Audrey interrupted. "But really there must be something we could do for you."

The woman smiled. "Actually there is _something_ you could do for me."

Mal dragged her exhausted body out of her bed and fell on the floor. Her alarm rang throughout her room and she mentally slapped herself for choosing such an early class today.

"Mal if you don't mind, can you shut your alarm up!" Sasha yelled from under her pillow.

"Yeah," Vega huffed. "It's hard to be a morning person when you're ruining the morning!"

"Sorry guys," Mal apologized. "But I was late yesterday's and I intend to not repeat it."

"What teacher?"

"Wellington."

"Ooh had her my first year. She's rough. You'll be dead by the end of the summer," Sasha said. "Well goodnight!" She fell back on her bed and covered her head with her covers.

"Don't listen to her," Vega said. "Mrs. Wellington is not that bad. Sure she's strict but that's just because she pushed people to be their best. Besides I've seen some of your art. You're really talented."

"Thanks," Mal smiled. "You know, you remind me of my friend Evie. Sunny, cheerful, wise beyond her years. I miss her."

"Yeah, it's hard being away from everyone you love," Vega said, getting back into bed.

Mal sighed. _It sure was._

 _"_ Okay, so everyone has what they need?" Ben asked for the 15th time.

"Yes Ben we packed everything," Chad said. "Dude if you weren't checking materials for 40 minutes, we could've been in the forest already."

"I just want to be prepared," Ben defended.

Doug sighed. "I'm all about being prepared but this is just ridiculous."

"Okay, fine, let's head out!" Ben said.

"That won't be necessary," Carlos said.

"Why is that?"

"Turn around."

Ben turned around to see a hobbling Audrey walk being supported by Jay. Evie immediately ran over to them and hugged them. She then smacked Jay on his arm.

"Ow! What was that for?" Jay complained.

"Don't you ever scare me like that again!" Evie said. She hugged them again. "I was so worried about you guys."

"Yeah well we're completely fine," Audrey said. "Except for the fact that I can't breathe!"

Evie immediately let go. "Sorry."

"Completely fine?" Lonnie asked. "What about your ankle."

"Yeah last time I checked your ankle didn't match Evie's hair," Carlos said.

"It's a... long story," Jay said.

"We've got time," Evie said.

"Yeah but can we go inside? My ankle is killing me!" Audrey said.

"Yeah sure!" Evie and Lonnie helped her up the stairs. The guys hung back.

Ben patted Jay on the back. He led him into the cabin. "You've got a lot of explaining to do."


	9. New Drama

"Look I don't know how it happened? I just followed Audrey and last thing I know, we're lost in the middle of the woods," Jay finished explaining.

Chad laughed. "Oh come on Jay. You didn't 'accidentally' get lost. You and Audrey planned it."

Jay ran his hands through his hair in frustration. The guys had been nonstop teasing him since Audrey and him had gotten back. Dinner had been awkward, no one daring to say a word until the girls went upstairs. The guys were all downstairs in the living room, and as soon as the girls were out of earshot, had bombarded Jay with questions.

"Chad do you honestly think if we planned this, Audrey would've broken her ankle?"

Chad smirked. "Well you never know. We don't know what you two were doing in those woods or how you were doing it."

"Stop it Chad!"

"Make me!"

"Enough!" Ben intervened. "Chad quit riling up Jay. Jay tell us the truth, please."

Jay groaned. "I did. I was worried that Audrey was gonna get hurt going out on her own and I didn't realize where we had gone. We found some nice lady and we found our way back. There's no more to the story."

"Ok. If you say so."Ben smirked.

"Stop that!"

"Stop what?" Ben said innocently.

"Stop saying you believe me when we both know that you believe Chad more." Jay said, pointing his finger between Chad and Ben.

Ben laughed. "You know I'm just messing with you. I'm sorry. I believe you."

"Thank you." Jay sighed, relieved that they had dropped the subject.

"But," Ben chuckled," what _did_ you and Audrey do in the woods?"

"I'm gonna kill you!"

Mal sighed. She looked around at the campus with all its lights and sounds. She felt so out of place. Today was the annual welcome party. This being her first year at the art camp, she had no idea who anyone was. Everyone had divided themselves into their own groups, leaving Mal to be alone in a corner. She groaned at how pathetic she must've looked.

"Hey," Vega greeted her. "Why are you over hear by yourself?"

"I don't know," Mal shrugged. "I don't really know anyone and I'm not really sure how to approach anyone."

"Why don't you come over with us?" Sasha said coming up to them. "I'm sure our friends would like to meet you."

"You guys have the same friends?"

Vega laughed. "It may not seem like it but Sasha and I actually get along. Most of the time."

Mal chuckled. "I guess I could try to make friends."

Sasha led them to a picnic table where four other teens sat. "These are our friends."

"Guys this is Mal," Vega introduced. Everyone greeted Mal.

"This is Sachi," Sasha said pointing to a small Asian girl with glasses.

"Hey," Sachi greeted. "Dude your hair is epic."

"Thanks," Mal smiled.

"I'm Higgins and this is my twin sister Haley," a tall lanky guy with glasses said. He gestured to his sister who had arrived with a pizza.

"Your parents actually named you Higgins?" Mal asked, dumbfounded.

"No, they named him Henry," his sister said in monotone. "But that over there is the other Henry who we call Ion."

"Sup I'm Ion," a guy with really long fringe greeted. He flicked his hair in the classic Bieber style. His hair was so long you could barely see his thick rimmed glasses.

"Ugh, what have I told you about getting a haircut," Sasha complained. She sat next to him and ruffled his hair.

"I'll cut my hair when I'm good and ready," Ion said.

"These two are practically inseparable," Vega giggled. "We all met here years ago when we were twelve. They've been long distance dating since we were thirteen."

"Wow," Mal said. "You guys seem really cool."

"Hey Mal."

Mal turned around to to see Evan waving at her. "Hey," she greeted shyly. Evan winked at her and kept walking to his friends.

"Oh my gosh!" Vega squeaked. "Evan Anderson is so into you!"

Mal tried hard not to blush. "I don't think so. Besides the last thing I need right now are boys."

"Yeah I heard you and King Ben are doneso," Sasha said. Vega gave her a death stare. "What?"

"Yeah, we are," Mal said.

"Then what's stopping you from getting with Evan?" Vega said.

"Everything!" Mal protested. "I'm not here to meet boys, I'm here to work on my art."

"Well that's good," Sachi spoke up. "Not like you could get with him anyway."

"Sachi!"

"I'm just saying, Vega. Not because of Mal, but because of his ex." Sachi explained.

"True," Vega said. "His girlfriend is like the princess of this camp. All because her dad is one of the biggest sponsors."

"Oh no. I have enough mean girl drama," Mal sighed. "This girl in Mrs. Wellington's class is a total b."

"Ooh, rough," Sasha said. "What's her name?"

"Tessa, I think." Everyone stared wide eyed at Mal. Mal frowned. "What?"

"That's Evan's ex girlfriend," Vega explained.

Mal sighed and placed her head in her hands. "Well that's just great."

Jane sat patiently in Dr. Gabriel's office waiting for him to return from his lunch break. She looked around the small room that was impeccably clean and neat. Her mind wandered to her mother and her friends. She really did miss her friends.

"Well good afternoon Jane," Dr. Gabriel greeted, causing Jane to jump. "I'm sorry. Didn't mean to scare you."

"Oh- it's n-nothing. I was just lost in thought," Jane said blushing.

Dr Gabriel smirked. "Well that's alright. That's what I'm here for. Now why don't you tell me what's in your mind."

"I miss home," Jane blurted out. "I hate it here. Everyone is always sad and there's always this pressure about getting better and recovering and I just need room to breathe." She was panting heavily after her outburst and looked down at her hands, that were fidgeting around.

"Wow," was all that Dr Gabriel could say. He grabbed Hanes hands in his own. "I'm very proud of you for saying all that. " he smiled at her.

Jane felt uncomfortable and drew back her hands. "When can I go home?"

"Well the sooner you recover, the sooner you get home," Dr Gabriel explained.

"So I just start eating again and I get to go home?"

"Exactly."

"Ok"

"Just what I needed!" Mal yelled in frustration. "I don't need Tessa drama."

"Just stay out of her way and you should be fine," Sasha advised. "Because she can be very unforgiving if you get in her way."

"Speak of the devil," Ion said as Tessa walked up.

"Hey Mal!" She smiled with fake enthusiasm. "Do my eyes deceive me or did Evan walk up to you and say hi?"

"He did," Mal replied.

"So are you guys like a thing?" Tessa glowered.

"What? No! I hardly know the guy," Mal defended.

"That's funny, because he seemed pretty smitten by you," Tessa smirked.

"Trust me, I have no interest," Mal insisted.

"Good!" Tessa glared. "Because if you do get involved with him, I'm going to make sure this is your last summer here." She flicked her dark braid over her shoulder and sauntered off to where her friends were glaring at Mal.

"What was that about?!" Higgins asked. "She like despises you."

"Yeah it's a bit odd," Sasha said. "But not totally uncalled for. Tessa is a nice girl. Really chill, kind of a flower child like her dad, Tarzan. But when it comes to stuff she loves like Evan and art, she can get nasty."

"She's super talented, but super competitive," Vega added.

"Great," Mal deadpanned. "I came here to escape drama not start new drama."

Ion pointed to Tessa and her friends glaring at Mal. "I don't think she got the memo."

Mal looked over to where he was pointing. "This is going to be a long summer."


	10. Sparks

The week had been uneventful and Audrey was literally dying of boredom. She had limited mobility due to her healing ankle. Her friends had tried to stay with her but she waved them away and insisted she was fine. But she wasn't. She was tired of being left out. Currently she was watching them swim in the lake as she laid in a chair on the dock.

"Hey!" Jay greeted as he sat alongside her. Audrey jumped and whacked him. "Ow!"

"You scared me you idiot!" Audrey huffed.

"Sorry," jay groaned. "What's wrong? You're in kind of a grumpy mood."

"This vacation is a total bust," Audrey whined. "I only came to distract myself from my break up with Florian."

"Oh," Jay frowned looking away.

Audrey gave a small smile. "And to hang out with my friends."

"Oh so we're friends now?" Jay questioned.

Audrey purses her lips. "Are we? I think so."

Jay furrowed his brows.

"I hope so," Audrey said. "You're not actually _that_ bad."

"Hey!" Audrey giggled. "For your information I am a delight."

"And so humble."

"I'm the most humble there ever was," Jay joked.

"Sure."Audrey laughed. She turned her attention to the sun setting. "It's so beautiful out here. I'm glad Ben brought us here."

"Yeah. I bet breaking your ankle was the highlight of your summer." Audrey rolled her eyes and playfully shoved him. She almost lost her balance but Jay steadied her. "Careful. We wouldn't want you to break that pretty little head of yours now would we?"

Audrey looked at him. "You think I'm pretty?"

"Well doesn't everyone?" Jay tried to cover up his slip up.

"Well not everyone," Audrey mumbled.

"And they're an idiot."

Audrey blushed. "Thanks but it's true. Florist couldn't see a future with me so he dumped me." She frowned and Jay wiped a few tears from her cheek.

"Like I said, he's an idiot," Jay said seriously. Audrey looked him in the eye looking for any trace of sarcasm but was met by Jay's deathly serious gaze.

"Thanks," Audrey said, leaning in. Jay found himself leaning in too. They were barely an inch apart.

"Hey guys were going back- oh!" Evie gasped, Doug in tow. "Did we interrupt something?"

Audrey immediately backed up when she heard Evie's voice. "Nope! No! Nothing! Nada! Doug can you help me back?"

Doug merely nodded, looking like a deer caught in headlights. He gave Jay a knowing look and helped Audrey hobble back to the cabin.

Jay watched her leave, dazed by what had just happened, or was about to happen. He turned to face Evie who was smirking with a mischievous look.

"Shut up!" Jay grumbled, trudging back to the cabin.

Mal sighed. Her hand felt really cramped. The whole week she had been writing notes on shade and light, monochromatic and such but had not actually done any art in Mrs. Wellington's class. And she had enough.

Mrs Wellington changed the slide and Mal got up. "Mrs Wellington, with all due respect, wouldn't our artwork improve if we actually did art? Paint, pastel, heck even crayons! Not just sitting here and wasting our time on notes that although helpful, we could find on the internet."

"Miss Green, in all my 42 years of teaching at the university level, never have I ever had a student complain about my methods. Nor have they ever raised their voice and openly confront me!" Mrs Wellington said.

Tessa and other students smirked while others were terrified. No one had ever stood up to Mrs Wellington.

Tessa turned to her right. "Now the VK is gonna get it." The girl laughed and Tessa smiled triumphantly.

"I'm impressed," Mrs Wellington finished.

The whole class stared at her dumbfounded. She approached Mal's desk where Mal stood frozen at her reaction.

"You are?" Mal asked.

"Yes. It takes real guts to stand up for what you believe in. You took a risk and spoke out. It's very admirable. You remind me of myself when I was younger."

"I do?"

"Yes. I was quite the troublemaker in my days. Very outspoken too. I was waiting for you to finally shine through," Mrs Wellington smiled.

"I don't understand," Mal said, still confused.

"You were chosen for this program based on your passion for art. You've been very soft spoken since you arrived and I was disappointed but I guess now you will provide your best work. I expect great things from you," Mrs Wellington said returning to her seat.

Mal sat down with a smile. The class sat in stunned silence.

"Oh Miss Green?"

"Yes?"

"Finish the notes."

Mal smiled. "Yes ma'am. "

Tessa glowered in her chair. Mal was dangerous. Very dangerous.

"Ok, what the heck was that?" Evie said, pacing around the living room. On the couch sat Jay and Carlos looking at her amused. "Jay!"

"Yes?" Jay said, feigning innocence.

"You. And Audrey. Were going to kiss!" Evie yelled.

"Sshhh!" Jay hissed. "She's upstairs."

"Fine," Evie whispered. "Is this better?"

"Yeah"

"Ok," Evie said composing herself. "Now will you please explain to me what the heck _that_ was?"

"It was nothing," Jay blushed.

"Nothing dude?" Carlos smirked. "Dude you almost kissed the girl you've been crushing on since we got here. The only other time that happened was prom."

"I know," Jay sighed. "I don't know what's wrong with me. It's like every time I'm around Audrey, I want to be the nice guy for once, not just the tough guy. She makes me feel happy. And safe. And that's not something I can say about everyone. Honestly I'm finally able to say that I like Audrey. Like I _really_ like Audrey."

"No," Evie mocked.

"You don't say," Carlos said sarcastically. Jay threw a pillow at him.

"I'm serious guys. I don't know what to do," Jay said.

"Well have you told her how you feel?" Evie asked. "Cuz if you haven't that would be a great place to start."

"It's just I don't know how to face Audrey after what happened," Jay groaned.

"Well if you don't talk about what happened, nothing's going to get better," Carlos said wisely.

"Wow Carlos, that was actually really good advice," Evie smiled.

"You're right," Jay said, getting up. "I'm going to go talk to Audrey." He headed upstairs.

"You go Jay!" Evie cheered him on.

"Do you think he'll do it?" Carlos said.

Evie smirked. "Yeah I do."

Audrey sighed looking at the mirror. On the way back from the lake she had ignored Doug as best as she could so be wouldn't ask questions about what had happened. She didn't even know what had happened. She smiled to herself thinking about the fact that she almost kis-

No. It was confusing. She had no idea how she felt. She finished drying her hair and figured she had hid enough time in the bathroom and Doug had probably forgotten about everything. She thought wrong.

Waiting for her outside the bathroom was a smirking Doug. "Avoiding someone are we?"

"Gosh Doug! How long have you've been waiting out here?" Audrey said.

"Not long, only like ten minutes," Doug shrugged. "I calculated an estimate of how long it would take you to get ready and added about twenty minutes of you trying to avoid me."

"Ugh I hate that you're so smart!" Audrey groaned, limping past him into her room. She sat on her bed. "So what do you want to know?"

Doug chuckled and looked down at Audrey. She was twiddling her thumbs and staring at the ground.

"You know, I've known you since we were children. I know all the signs," Doug said matter of factly.

"What signs?"

"The signs that you like a guy. Last time you liked a guy this much was Jason Partridge at summer camp in 2007. He was our counselor and like ten years older but you were love struck," Doug chuckled at the memory.

"I was so upset when he wasn't there the summer after because he had gone off to college," Audrey laughed.

"Yeah so I know the signs," Doug said. You're really easy to read. And FYI you didn't have any of the signs with Florian."

Audrey felt a lump in her throat. "What do you mean?"

"I mean that Jay is different. You really like him," Doug explained.

Jay walked upstairs and was about to knock on Audrey's door when he heard his name. He opened the door slightly to try to overhear the conversation.

"Doug I swear you're crazy!" Audrey denied." I don't like Jay!" Jay felt a pang in his chest.

"But what about the almost kiss?" Doug questioned.

"I was just caught up in the moment," Audrey tried to explain. "And even if I did like Jay, which I don't, it could never work out."

"Why not?"

"Because- because I'm a princess and he's not a prince."

"Audrey that's a lame excuse," Doug reasoned.

"But it's true. My grandfather always told me to keep our bloodline pure. That I must marry someone of my kind. It's just how things are!"

"Not anymore," Doug said.

"Doug stop trying to convince me otherwise. It's just not meant to be."

"Fine. I'll only leave you alone if you can look me in the eyes and tell me you don't love Jay,"

"Love-?"

"Tell me you don't love him."

Audrey mustered up all her courage and stared at Doug. "I don't love Jay."

Doug frowned. He was really hoping she would change her mind.

Jay had heard enough. There was no way he was walking in there and making an a*s of himself for a girl who doesn't even like him. He stormed downstairs past Evie and Carlos's questioning glances.

"Jay what-"

"Just drop it Evie!" Jay yelled as he stormed out of the cabin. He opened the door and pushed past Chad, Ben and Lonnie who had returned with firewood. Ben dropped his and ran after Jay.

"Jay where are you going?" Ben yelled after him.

"Away."

"Away where?"

Jay stopped and Ben finally caught up to him. "Just away. If you're really my friend, you'll let me go."

"Will you be alright?"

Jay looked back at the cabin. "No." He turned on his heel and disappeared into the forest.


	11. Honesty

Morning had returned, but Jay had not. Everyone sat around the breakfast table, quiet and pensive over the events of last night. Chad, Ben and Lonnie were semi confused because they did not know the full story.

"Ok this silence is killing me," Evie exclaimed, exasperated. "Audrey what happened between you and Jay yesterday?"

Audrey blushed. "Evie you saw what happened."

"What happened?" Ben asked, clueless.

"I don't mean that," Evie said, ignoring Ben. "I mean when he went up to talk to you."

"Wait, what happened?" Ben asked again.

Audrey furrowed her brows. "What do you mean? He didn't go up there."

"I feel like you're ignoring me."

"What?"Evie said.

"Yeah, Evie. " Doug said. "Audrey was talking to me the whole time."

"That makes no sense," Carlos piped up. "We saw him go up and then come down, angry. We assumed he had talked to Audrey."

"He was angry- oh Doug! What if he overheard us?" Audrey said, realization dawning on her.

"Over heard what?" Evie asked suspiciously.

"Um it's bad," Doug said.

"We need to find Jay!" Audrey said. She got up from her seat and Doug helped her out. Evie and Carlos followed.

Chad, Lonnie and Ben sat at the table utterly confused.

"Do you guys know what's going on?" Ben asked.

Chanda and Lonnie shook their heads yes.

"So am I the only one who has no idea what's going on?"

Chad got up and patted him on the back. "Hang in there buddy." Lonnie giggled and left with him to the lake.

Ben sat alone. "So is no one gonna tell me what's going on!"

Mal was finally starting to enjoy the art camp. She had found an amazing group of people she felt comfortable with and could honestly call her friends (but don't tell Evie that, she gets jealous ).

Mrs Wellington's class was more bearable now that they were actually painting: it was basics and how to improve them, but it was a step up from writing notes.

The only thing that hadn't improved was Tessa's attitude towards her. To everyone else she was cheery and happy and an all around good person, but to Mal she was vicious and unforgiving, making Mal's slightest hiccups or accidents seem like it was the end of te world.

"She's just jealous," Vega stated, stuffing her mouth with a tomato. "She always been the best and you're threatening that title."

"But she hadn't even seen me paint," Mal stated. "She saw one of my works once and snickered at it, like it was a children's drawing."

"I got to agree with Vega." Sachs said. "Tessa is a very jealous person. It's her one flaw. Otherwise she's practically perfect."

"How so?" Mal questioned.

"Well for starters, her parents are amazing. They're also Jane and Tarzan." Sachi explained.

Mal's jaw dropped. " _The_ Jane and Tarzan that travel all over the world who have become multimillionaires through their several shows, documentaries and books! Tessa is their daughter?"

"Yep," Higgins replied. "Tessa's family is loaded. I mean they donate a lot to charity, but the money keeps on rolling in."

"Due to her family's financial status, Tessa has grown up very privileged. She was homeschooled by her her mother because she grew up traveling through rainforests and such with her parents." Sachi continued.

"That's some of her best work!" Vega spoke up. "Her painting of the amazon rainforest sunset is absolutely breathtaking! I could attempt at it for hours and feel like I was actually in the rainforest. It's glorious-"

"Vega!" Sasha snapped her fingers. Vega snapped out of her daze.

"Oops, I did it again didn't I?" Vega blushed.

Sasha laughed. She turned to Mal." Vega has a bad habit of going off into tangents and once she starts, you can't really get her to shut up."

"It's true," Vega nodded sheepishly. "I started going to therapy for it after I took over a teacher's lecture for the entire class... twice."

"Anyway," Sasha continued. "Tessa is the big dog at this camp. She's an amazing artist and she knows it. But she's also been trying to get back with Evan for ages and the fact that he likes you doesn't help."

"They were the 'it' couple," Sachi said. "Like literally fairytale."

"What happened?" Mal questioned.

Sasha sighed. "He got sick of her. She's a really jealous person. She was very protective of him and wouldn't let him talk to any girl and she sort of alienated him from his friends. So he dumped her."

Mal gawked. "But I didn't ask for any of this! I don't like it that Evan likes me. It's weird."

"Is it because you're still so in love with King Ben of Auradon?" Vega asked excitedly.

Mal blushed. "What? In love? Who said anything about love? Look, me and Ben dated, yes, but I'm taking a break from all that."

"On another note, what are you all going to submit for the showcase?" Sachs said, trying to change the subject.

"Showcase?" Mal asked.

"Every year everyone either teams up or works solo to produce an original piece of artwork," Ion explained. "Whoever is chosen as the best has their work displayed in the annual international Art Festif. This year it's being held in Paris."

"That sounds so cool."

"Yeah well don't get your hopes up too high," Sasha deadpanned. "Tessa has won three years in a row."

Mal smirked. "Maybe so, but I think this is the year someone will give her a run for her money."

Jane sighed. Another day, another session. Dr Gabriel had been very supportive of Jane which she found reassuring. Yesterday she received letters from her friends, making her the happiest she'd been all summer. Hopefully today would be her last day at this prison they called rehab.

"So Jane, I've reviewed all your charts and food logs and I must say I'm impressed," dr Gabriel smiled as he walked in. "Your progress over this time has been remarkable. You are now back at a healthy weight. You are eating regular meals and eating it all. I'm so proud of you!"

"What does this mean?" Jane asked meekly.

Dr Gabriel laughed. "It means you get to go home."

Jane's eyes lit up. "You mean it?"

"Yes, your mother will come pick you up tomorrow so pack your bags, you're cured!" Dr Gabriel hugged her and walked out to get the next patient's charts.

Jane smiled as she walked towards her room. It had worked. She had faked it till she made it. They would never know, they could never know. She carefully walked into her room , making sure no nurses were around. She closed the door behind her and lifted up her mattress. There lay her journal she had been writing in for the past soulless weeks. She open it up to the last page and hugged the journal with all her might.

"Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" She whispered. On the last page, in hastily written scrawl was something she found in one of her mothers old spell books she as forbidden to read. A mirage spell.

Audrey hobbled out of the cabin with Doug helping her. She was freaking out. If Jay had heard what she said, that could be bad. But it would only be bad if..

"Evie!" She called to the blue haired teen. "Why was Jay coming up to talk to me? Why would he get upset?"

"That depends," Evie said. "What did you say that would have made him so upset?"

"Alright enough of this!" Doug yelled, startling everyone, including himself. "What is wrong with everyone?"

Carlos caught up out of breath. "Yeah- isn't - it -obvious?" He said between breaths.

"What is?" Audrey asked genuinely confused.

"Audrey, Jay likes you. Like he like-likes you. He always has!" Doug exclaimed exasperated.

"What-"

"And don't even pretend you don't like him back!" He interrupted her. "It's been blatantly obvious since he arrived. And this whole 'I'm a Princess' thing is not a good enough excuse to deny your feelings. For the love of gob and all things magical could you two just give it a rest?"

Audrey stared wide eyed at Doug, who's face was red from his little outburst.

He took a deep breath to calm himself. "The poor guy left because he heard what you said, and he's heartbroken." Doug said softly. "I think you should think about how your words hurt other people Audrey."

"But I didn't know he heard me!" Audrey defended.

"But wouldn't you have said the same thing had he come up to talk to you?" Doug said.

"I don't- I don't know," Audrey lied.

"Audrey, you do know," Doug said, heading back to the cabin. "I'm gonna give you some time to think. I think you need it."

Audrey looked crushed. She couldn't believe everything Doug had told her. It hurt. But she knew it was true. How much longer could she use her status as an excuse? She was so sick of hearing herself say it, over and over again that even she was starting to not believe it.

Evie gave her a sympathetic look, before following Doug back to the cabin, to get the full story.

Carlos gingerly sat next to Audrey on the ground next to the stump she sat on. She looked at her hands which were chipped and in desperate need of a manicure. They sat in silence.

"God, am I such a horrible human being?" Audrey finally spoke up.

Carlos shook his head. "No. You're just confused. We all are. It comes with the territory of being teenagers. Drama just comes naturally."

Audrey giggled. "No. Seriously. Was I too harsh on Jay?"

"Maybe a little." Carlos teased. Audrey playfully shoved him. "But, I know Jay hasn't been fully honest either. You guys are both so stubborn and hate confronting your feelings. You guys should've talked from the beginning."

Audrey sighed. "I know. But it's just so complicated."

"Is it?" Carlos said getting up off the ground. "Or are you just complicating it yourself?"

"Oh my god!" Audrey said, realization dawning on her. "I'm self sabotaging my life. And it's too late to fix things."

Carlos chuckled. "It's never too late. I'll give you some space. You think you can gobble back on your own?"

Audrey rolled her eyes. "I think I can manage."

"Ok. Later."

"Later." And there she was. Alone. Sitting in a stump a few yards from the front porch of the cabin. She could faintly hear Lonnie and Chad's laughter from the lake. She probably assumed Ben and Carlos would probably play some video games. Doug and Evie would probably be together laughing and talking, like they always do. Never in her life had Audrey felt so utterly alone. It was peaceful yet unbearable at the same time.

She reflected on her choices and her past relationships. None of them worked out. The common denominator. Her.

She heard crunching leaves behind her. "Go away Carlos. I said I could manage."

"I'm not Carlos."

Audrey turned her head to all too familiar voice.

"Jay."


	12. To Tell the Truth

Last time on Evil Hearts...

She heard crunching leaves behind her. "Go away Carlos. I said I could manage."

"I'm not Carlos."

Audrey turned her head to an all too familiar voice.

"Jay."

"Jay," Audrey said shocked. "You're back."

"Yeah.." Jay had his hands in his pockets. He really couldn't look at Audrey right now, not after what she had said.

"Where have you been?" Audrey asked. "Everyone's been worried sick."

"Everyone?"

Audrey smiled. "Yeah. Everyone."

Jay smirked. "Well sorry I worried you He sat next to her.

Audrey tried to hide her blush. Last time Jay had been this close...

"So what's up?" Audrey croaked. "I never pegged you as the outdoorsy type then all of a sudden you're sleeping in the woods?"

Jay rolled his eyes. "I can be outdoorsy. But it's not like I got much sleep."

"Oh yeah?"

"I spent the whole time thinking." Jay was fiddling his hands.

"About?" Audrey noticed his nervousness. She was nervous too. And she had no idea why. Her felt was beating so hard she was afraid it would jump right out of her chest.

Jay looked up at her. "Stuff." They locked eyes for a split second before Audrey had to look away. Yet she could feel Jays eyes on the side of her head.

"What's kind of stuff?" Audrey croaked.

"Nothing you'd be interested in," Jay said.

"Try me."

Jay frowned. "Honestly you wouldn't want to know what I think right now."

"I wouldn't?"

"Nope," Jay said, popping the p.

They sat in awkward silence. Audrey drew in a breath. She couldn't stand it. She felt awful. She had to apologize.

"Listen, Jay, I think we need to talk," Audrey said.

Jay got an unreadable expression on his face. "Why? When you can talk to Doug instead?"

"So you did overhear our conversation?" Audrey asked.

"Of course I did!" Jay said harshly. "And you want to know what? That hurt."

"It did?"

Jay let out a humorless laugh. "You really don't get it do you? I like you Audrey. Like a lot. And I don't even know why. All I know is that whenever you're around I get flustered and nervous."

Audrey stared in shock at his confession.

"And you want to the know the worst part? I can't stop liking you, no matter how hard I try and trust me I've tried. And it sucks because I honestly thought you felt something too."

"You did?"

"Well it seems like I was wrong."

Audrey gaped. "Jay it's not.."

"Not what? Not what I think. Let me tell you what I think! I think that we were actually getting somewhere. That maybe I was breaking down your walls."

"Jay.."

"But just when I thought there could be something, you pull an Audrey and shut back down. It's like you're afraid."

"What if I am?" Audrey said, tears in her eyes. Jay tried to keep a straight face and focus on his anger and not on her getting upset.

"Afraid of what?"

"Afraid of .." Audrey couldn't finish the sentence.

"Afraid of me?" Jay asked angrily.

Audrey could only bite her lip and look away. That was all that Jay needed to understand.

"I don't know what you want me to say," Audrey said.

Jay bit back his tears. "You don't need to say anything. I think I get it now." He got up from the log. He started heading back to the cabin.

"Jay," Audrey called out. She pushed herself off the log and linked behind him. Her ankle hurt more with each step, but she had to talk to Jay.

Jay bathed into the cabin, ignoring the questioning looks from his friends and running up the stairs.

"Jay!" Evie called out to no avail.

Audrey came in limping, her face puffy and red. Chad and Ben rushed to help her but she tried to push past them. Evie embraces her and held her before she could fall.

"Ssh it's okay," Evie comforted. "It's okay."

"It's not okay!" Audrey sobbed.

"Audrey what happened?" Evie said.

"I took your advice, I talked to him. But I'm pretty sure I only made things worse."

"Give him time to cool off," Ben said. "Maybe after he cams down, you guys can explain to me WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON!" Ben composed himself after his little outburst. He smoothed down his shirt and stared at his friends shocked faces.

"So why don't I put a kettle on and Ben you can calm down," Lonnie said.

Ben sat down sheepishly at the kitchen table. "Maybe that's a good idea."

Mal sighed. She looked at the clock. 7:00 pm. She had been hunched over her desk since her class let out at two. Her room was strewn with wadded up paper balls everywhere.

"And I thought Vega was messy," Sasha said holding a cup holder. "What the heck happened here?"

Mal groaned. "I've been trying to come up with an idea for the showcase and honestly I've never had so much trouble coming up with ideas in my life!" She got up and plopped into her bed.

Sasha gave her a sympathetic smile. She placed the cup holder on the desk. "I thought you might want some java. I heard you like your coffee like your soul. Black with lots of sugar."

Mal smiled in gratitude. She grabbed the coffee and happily dipped it. "Thanks. I needed this. I'm seriously blocked right now."

"Really?" Sasha questioned sipping at her own latte. "I assumed you were an idea factory, I mean considering your art."

Mal blushed. "Thanks. Normally yes I am a free flowing waterfall of ideas, but with this showcase there's a lot of pressure and I'm kind of nervous."

Sasha smiled. "Yeah I get that. But chewing cooped up in here with failed ideas is not going to help. You need some fresh air. Why don't you go on a walk. Clear your mind. Hey it might even serve as inspiration."

"I guess it could, but first I should clean up my mess," Mal said.

"Don't worry about it, I got it. I think you could really use the break."

"I hope you're right. I'm so not athletic."

"Oh sweetheart I'm so glad to see you!" Fairy Godmother exclaimed hugging tightly her daughter.

"Mother- can't- breathe!" Jane gasped.

"Oh sorry!" Fairy Godmother released her and Jane gasped for air. "It's just that I've missed you."

"Mother it's only been two months," Jane said.

"Oh I know!" Fairy Godmother said. "But I've just missed you so much! My, look how much you've grown since the last time I saw you!"

"Mother I've hardly changed," Jane said.

"Well it's good to have you back at Auradon again." Fairy Godmother chatters excitedly. "I have so many things planned for us to do, since you haven't been here in so long."

"Mother.."

"I thought maybe we could grab some lunch,."

"Mom.."

"Then play some crochet and then go shopping."

"Mother!"

Fairy Godmother was surprised at Jane's outburst.

"I just want to rest. It's been a long trip.I hope you understand. Maybe we could hang out tomorrow. I promise."

Fairy Godmother tried to hide her hurt. "Of course dear, I understand."

"Thank you," Jane said. She hurried to her room to put away all her belongings. She had to find a place to hide her mother's spell book. She spotted a loose floorboard and hid the book under it.

"Perfect," she sighed. "Now no one will know the truth."


	13. Battles

"I can't find it!" Mal screamed bursting into her room.

"Find what?" Vega asked, halfway through braiding Sasha's hair.

"Move! Move! Move!" Mal yelled, pushing Vega off the chair. She dug through the cushions, to no avail. She plopped on her bed and stared at the ceiling.

"Ok," Sasha spoke, getting up from the floor. "What the heck was that about?!"

"My life is over!" Mal sighed dramatically.

"What were your looking for? Maybe we can help." Vega said, trying to be helpful.

"My sketchbook," Mal said.

"Really!" Sasha said. "That has all your ideas and stuff, doesn't it?"

"Yeah," Mal sighed. "And my rough draft for judging tomorrow."

"That sucks!" Vega said.

"Where did you last remember having it?" Sasha asked.

"Just class and here," Mal said, running her hands through her hair. "Wait! I was in the mixed media room working on some sketches. I must've left it there!"

"Well you have 10 minutes," Sasha said, checking her phone. "Curfew is at nine."

Mal ran out of the room and ran as fast as she could to the mixed media room. She burst into the room to see Tessa and her friend Talyn.

"What the heck!" Tessa said, clutching her chest. "Next time run in louder, why don't you?"

Mal rolled her eyes. "Sorry but I'm looking for something."

"Your sketchbook?"

Mal looked up at a smirking Tessa. She narrowed her eyes. "How did you know?"

"I didn't take it, if that's what you're thinking," Tessa said. She grabbed the book off a neighboring desk and handed it to Mal. "You're the only person here with a purple sketchbook that says 'long live evil' on it."

"Oh," Mal said, taking the book. "Thank you."

"I hope you don't mind, but I did look through it," Tessa admitted. "You're pretty amateur, but you're not completely awful. You have potential."

Mal frowned. "Thanks, I think."

"Well we should get going, wouldn't want to stay up too late," Tessa said. "Tomorrow's a _very_ important day."

She walked out with Talyn. Mal clutched her sketchbook to her chest and went back to her room to rest for the upcoming day.

The room was silent. Mal tapped her pen on her desk. Today was the day that their rough drafts were going to be judged and be chosen for the showcase. If your idea was picked, you had one week to finish your final draft to be submitted. Mal has never been this nervous in her life.

A panel of three teachers: Mr Ellis, a sculptor, Madame Dubois, a photographer, and the know all Mrs Wellington were judging. They were finally approaching Mal's table. She could feel her stomach flutter.

She opened her sketchbook but her draft wasn't there. She leafed through her entire book but it was gone. Upon closer inspection she saw that it was torn out of her book, meaning...

"This is a... unique concept, Tessa," Mrs Wellington said. "This is so unlike you. I'm very impressed."

Mal looked up and saw that it was her draft! But what could she do? If she spoke up they may not believe her. But now she didn't have anything to present.

"Miss Green. What do you have to show us?" Mrs Wellington asked.

Mal knew it was a long shot, but she pulled out one of her old works. She did it shortly after coming to Auradon. Hopefully it was good enough to impress the judges.

"I know it's not much but -

"It's adequate," Mrs Wellington cut her off. "It needs some work but interesting concept. I expect your final draft to be equally as interesting."

She moved on to the next student, leaving a dumbfounded Mal. Mal looked at a smirking Tessa and glared. This meant war.

The morning had been extremely awkward. Everyone had ate in silence. And could sense the tension between Audrey and Jay. Jay was completely ignoring Audrey.

Everyone finished eating and the girls headed upstairs to finish packing. Chad and Carlos began washing the dishes while Jay began packing.

Ben followed Jay into the moving room. "Hey are you ok?"

"Shouldn't you be packing?" Jay said, not looking up.

"I packed last night," Ben said smugly.

Jay scoffed. "Of course you did."

"Jay, I think we need to talk," Ben said.

"About ?"

"About what happened between you and Audrey."

Jay rolled his eyes. "Yeah because you're the leading expert on relationships."

Ben sighed. "Ok. I get it. I made a mistake. But I'm not going to let you make the same mistake."

Jay scoffed. "Um , sure. Because I totally cheated on my girlfriend."

Ben winced. "Not that. Mal wasn't mad because I kissed Evie. Well she was. But she was more mad because I wasn't honest with her."

"News flash, Benny boy. I was honest."

"Maybe. But you also lost your temper. I think you should talk with Audrey again. And talk honestly about whatever is going on with you." Ben got up and went upstairs to get his stuff.

Jay sighed. He really didn't want to admit it, but he knew Ben had a point. He would talk to Audrey, eventually.

Jane was going mad with the attention her mother was giving her. Her mother had always been a tad too overprotective, but after Jane was sick, her mother had officially lost it. Currently she was chatting away at the breakfast table.

"Oh and that reminds me! We must go horseback riding." Fairy Godmother managed to say between bites of food. She was just excited about her baby girl feeling better.

Jane could only pick at her food. "That would be nice," she smiled out of politeness.

"Jane are you alright?" Her mother asked, concerned. "I thought you were doing better at the clinic."

Jane gave a weak smile. "I was. I mean I am. It's just I'm not used to Auradon food. I'm gotten used to porridge. But don't mind me, I'll adjust quickly."

Fairy Godmother smiled. "That's good news. Speaking of good news, your friends shall be arriving tonight from the lake house."

Jane smiled. She had missed her friends immensely. "That's fantastic. Maybe we can spend the remainder of the summer together."

"Well I'm sure they'll be happy to see you too." Fairy Godmothers phone buzzed. She picked it up and her smile was replaced by a serious expression.

"Is something wrong?" Jane asked, worried.

"I'm afraid so," Fairy Godmother said. "It's the doctor informing me of Cruella's condition. Apparently in her weakened state she's developed pneumonia. They're monitoring her carefully, but it's looking pretty bad."

"Oh no. Poor Carlos."

"Yes. It's hard. But sweetie, I think it's best we don't tell Carlos the state of his mother as to not worry him."

"You want me to lie?" Jane asked. "Carlos is my friend. I can't lie to him."

"Not necessarily. It's more like just not telling him."

"So lying by omission?"

"Technically yes."

"And what do I say if he asks about his mother?"

"Try to change the subject."

"I can't tell him anything?"

"Jane, sweetheart, I don't want to worry him in case his mother recuperates. So you're going to have to keep this a a secret."

Jane sighed. "Ok." She got up suddenly from the table. "I'm not so hungry anymore."

She walked out from the dining room, leaving her mother speechless.


	14. A Promise

Jane was still slightly upset at her mother for making her keep a secret she did not want to keep. She was in the study, catching up on her summer assignments, school starting in a matter of weeks. The summer had passed by quickly and dreary at the rehabilitation center. But now she was home.

Her stomach growled. But have ignored it and went to pick out another book. She tripped over her own feet and banged against the bookcase. She stepped back when the bookcase moved, revealing a space behind it. A secret room!

She cautiously entered, not knowing what to expect. She walked into what she assumed was a storage room. She looked around and saw boxes upon boxes of stuff. Some were marked mementos, others were marked photos. She picked up a box marked "Jane Age 1".

She sorted through the pictures and smiled. She was honestly a cute baby. She knew the hard part was coming. Pictures of her with her dad. From what she could understand, her father died before she turned two. So these were the only pictures that remained of her and her father.

Jane wiped away a tear and moved onto the next box, "Jane age 2". She rifled through the endless amount of photos. But what surprised her wasn't the amount of pictures, but more so the content. There she was, smiling at her second birthday with her dad. She couldn't believe it. She looked through more pictures of her and her parents.

How could her mom have lied to her? And then she saw it. A family photo taken at those prehistoric photo places. Her dad, toddler Jane. And her mother holding her stomach.

Jane got up and started to sift through more unmarked boxes. She went looking like a mad woman. She needed to find something, anything.

Fairy Godmother entered the study to finish her work as her office had become taken over with paperwork for the upcoming school year. She noticed the bookcase open to the storage room. She panicked. She mentally reprimanded herself for leaving it open. Open for anyone to discover.

"Oh dear," she said, running to close it. "How could I be so careless leaving this open? Wouldn't want-"

"Me to find it?" Jane said.

"Jane!" The one person she didn't want to find this, had found it. "I can explain."

Jane scoffed, tears in her eyes. "Explain what? That you lied about when my father died? That he might've not even died from illness. Or the others secrets you've been hiding?!"

Fairy Godmother paled. "Jane I know you're upset-."

"Upset? Upset doesn't even cover it!" Jane had never been this angry at anyone, not even her mother. She walked across the room to where her mother was and held up a blue blanket. "And how do you explain this?"

"Oh that's your baby blanket." Fairy Godmother said.

Jane couldn't believe it. "Stop lying to me mother. It has the initials TJF on it. And I already saw my yellow baby blanket in a box with my initials,JAF on it. So who's is this?"

"Jane I really suggest that you calm down so we can discuss this as adults."

"Ok," Jane said calming down. "Explain why you've been keeping secrets and lying to me for all these years."

"You could never understand how hard that was for me. I didn't think you were ready."

"And now? How long did you plan on keeping this from me?"

"I promise I planned on telling you soon."

Jane scoffed. "I can't listen until you decide to tell me the truth." She walked out of the study, blue blanket still in hand.

"Jane!" Fairy Godmother called after her. But she was gone.

Mal gritted her teeth at the loud laughter outside her window. Today was a field day at the art camp so there were no classes. So Mal took the opportunity of both Vega and Sasha being gone to work on her art project. However, the noise outside was just as distracting.

Still, she had made a lot of progress. Sort of. Her idea was half baked and she kind of had an idea of what to do. But she was still seething at the idea that her original idea was stolen.

Her thought process was interrupted by a knock at the door. Mal rose form her bed and went to open it. When she did, there stood Evan smiling the brightest smile she had ever seen.

"Hey Mal," he greeted, trying to put on the charm. "Lovely day isn't it?"

"Uh, yeah." Mal was confused. Why was he so smiley and at her door. "Can I help you?"

Evan smiled even brighter. "Actually you can. I was hoping we could go out to watch a movie or something. Today is a free day after all."

Mal gaped at him. Did he just ask her out? "Um, that's very sweet of you-."

He visibly perked up. "But I'm really busy right now."

His smile didn't falter. "That's fine. Maybe some other time."

Mal sighed. "Um, no. Look, I'm not looking for trouble. Tessa doesn't already like me as is. I don't need more drama in my life."

Evan grabbed her hands. "Don't worry about her. She'll get over it. We broke up a long time ago."

Mal removed her hands from his grasp. Could this guy not take a hint? "Look, honestly, I'm not looking for a relationship right now. I just got out of one and am not looking to date for a while."

"I can wait," Evan insisted. "However long it takes to say yes."

Mal rolled her eyes. Enough was enough. He clearly was not getting it . She was done being polite. "Okay. Seriously you need to take a hint. I don't want to date anyone right now, and if I did, it wouldn't be you. Look, I'm just not interested. Sorry."

Mal softly closed the door in his face. But Evan was not phased.

 _You might be saying no right now,_ he thought. _But soon enough you'll agree._

The gang had finally finished packing and were on their way back to Auradon, the trip had not turned out how Ben had hoped. Instead of unwinding from the year's drama, somehow more drama occurred. At least Chad and Lonnie we're back together. He couldn't wait to tell Ma-

Except he couldn't. Because they weren't dating anymore. And it was hard. He really loved her. And many people will say that he's young and stupid and that he doesn't know any better. But he knows how he feels. And he knows that with Mal, he's better.

He learned so much about how people aren't always how they seem, people can change, and sometimes people deserve second chances. He learned about strength and courage and most importantly, love. And he wouldn't trade any of it for the world. He just hoped someday Mal could forgive him and they could be together again.

But Ben wasn't the only one with relationship troubles. Jay was at the front of the group, into full moping mood. He didn't dare look back, knowing Audrey was in the back, being aided by Chad. The only other person in the front was Doug, who was navigating them back to Auradon.

Carlos noticed Jays attitude and Audrey's obvious guilt and decided he needed her side of the story. He went up to Chad and tapped his shoulder.

"Want a break?"

Chad sighed. "That would be great. Audrey's heavier than she looks."

"Hey!" An indignant Audrey yelled. "Am not!"

"Either way, I'm taking a break," Chad said. "She's all yours, Carlos."

Carlos and Chad switched, with Audrey now leaning on the younger boy for support.

"How's your ankle?" Carlos asked, trying to start small talk.

"Broken," Audrey said, eying him suspiciously. He was up to something.

"Good. That's good," Carlos said trying to ease into what he wanted to ask. "So what happened at the lake?" So much for subtle.

There it was. Audrey knew he wanted something. "Nothing you should be concerned about."

Carlos scoffed. "Yeah sure. Everyone knows something went down between you and Jay. And knowing you, you're dying to tell someone. So why not me?"

Audrey rolled her eyes. "I can give you a multitude of reasons."

However she couldn't mask the hurt that flashed in her eyes as she saw Jay ignoring her. And Carlos noticed.

"You like him, don't you?" He asked quietly.

"Carlos I'm not in the mood."

"You act as if it's some horrible secret. Newsflash, it's not."

"I said stop."

"How long until you stop avoiding the questions?"

Audrey growled. "I'm serious. There's nothing. There can't be. I can't like Jay."

"Would it be so bad?"

"Yes. It's not fit. I'm a princess for crying out loud!"

"But things have changed."

"But my grandparents haven't."

"What does that matter?"

"Everything," Audrey whispered. "I know you don't exactly come from the most loving home, but you must understand the expectations your parents can put on you."

He did. He completely understood. He knew his mother was very demanding and out a lot of pressure on him and he had to suck it up. And now his mother was sick.

"So you must understand that going against your parents wishes would lead to great disappointment."

"But what if what they want, doesn't make you happy?" Carlos asked.

"That doesn't matter," Audrey answered honestly. "I know it might've worked for you, but if I go against my parents' wishes, I could be disowned."

"What does that mean?"

"I could lose everything. And then what would I do? I'm not particularly good at anything. I've always focused on learning to become a good wife and mother."

Carlos couldn't believe it. "What? Why?"

Audrey sighed. "That's how grandmother raised me. See, my grandmother is part of an older generation who is not so modern thinking. She tries to understand the things of today, but she's very set in her ways. So going against everything they've taught me, could leave me with nothing."

"But what about what you want?"

"Like I said, doesn't matter. It comes at way too high a cost."

"But what about love?"

"Carlos, honestly, we're too young to know about love."

"Where's this coming from? This isn't the Audrey I know."

Audrey choked back a tear. "I don't know. I think I've just given up."

"Why?"

"Because," Audrey whispered. "It's hard. It's hard putting your heart out there only for it to be broken. There are things I can't change, no matter how much I'd want to. And everyone is making it see like it's my fault."

"But what you said-."

"I know what I said!" Audrey cried. "And trust me, I regret hurting Jay. But that doesn't change anything. It's better he hate me and ignore me than try something that could never be."

"But-."

"Carlos, I'm begging you, please try to understand. And could you keep this between us? I'd rather everyone just think I'm a b***h than to know I cried. Promise me you won't tell anyone."

Carlos sighed and hugged her. "I promise."


	15. Unraveling

"Insolent, inconsiderate pest!" Mal grumbled, scribbling furiously in a sketch pad. She paused to check her phone and threw it angrily back onto her bed. Her green eyes glowed.

"Problem?" Vega asked. She was painting her toenails in the bed. The three girls had decided to do some last minute touches to their artwork before the big showcase. However, Vega has gotten distracted per usual.

"You know you're supposed to be painting the canvas right?" Sasha deadpanned from across the room.

Vega frowned. "I know. But my toes look so cute! Anyways, what's the matter Mal?"

Mal sighed. Her eyes faded back to normal. "Somehow Evan got my number and has been texting me nonstop. He keeps asking me out, because apparently I wasn't clear the first hundred times."

"How'd he get your number?" Sasha asked. Suddenly Mal and Sasha turned to look at Vega.

The guilt was written all over her face. "I'm so sorry. But he begged me to give it to him. He looked so sad. What was I supposed to do?"

Mal was furious. "Why would you do that? Now he won't leave me alone."

"Just block his number." Sasha said.

Mal sighed. "I tried but he just keeps using other people's phones. I seriously don't have time for this. The showcase is tomorrow."

"Why are you so worried? You're so incredibly talented." Vega said.

"Yeah," Sasha agreed. "You've pretty much finished your piece. It looks great."

"But is 'great' good enough to win?"

"Think about it this way," Sasha explained. "Tessa stole your idea. So that means she can't make it as personal as you could. So there's only so far she could go with it. Besides your draft is done in a different technique so recreating will prove to be tough."

"But not impossible," Mal deadpanned.

She took a moment to step away from her work and see what she had done. She really wanted to be done painting.

"Mal,it's perfect." Vega exclaimed.

"That's some heavy competition for Tessa,"Sasha grinned.

Mal frowned and picked up a brush. "Yeah but I think it just needs a -."

Sasha took the brush from her hand. "Mal it's beautiful. I think you need to sleep. You've barely slept at all. Tomorrow is a big day. You're gonna need some rest."

"But-."

"But nothing." Sasha said.

Mal pouted. But then she smiled realizing something. "You remind me so much of my best friend Evie."

"I'll take that as a compliment," Sasha smiled. "Now off to bed!"

Mal grumbled, but eventually complied. They were right. Tomorrow was a big day and she really needed some sleep.

The Auradon teens were exhausted when they were picked up from the forest. They all enjoyed a cool limo ride back to Auradon.

Things were awkward and tense. Jay and Audrey were both quite upset and their friends expected yelling, but everything was quiet, and that was worse. Ben cleared his throat to try to ease the awkwardness.

"So Chad, are you holding your annual end of summer bash again this year?"

Chad tore his attention from Jay and Audrey to look at his friend. He smiled. "Totally. Considering this is my last back to school bash, my parents decided to go all out."

Lonnie frowned. "I forgot you're leaving for military training soon after graduation."

Chad squeezes her hand. "I know you're upset, but joining the royal guard has been a dream of mine since I was a kid."

"I know. But it's not just that. We're all heading different places after graduation. This is our senior year. We should enjoy each other while we can."

Ben chuckled. "That's the spirit. Forgive and forget. We should remember that we're friends above coming year is going to be the best yet!"

Jay rolled his eyes at Ben's cheerfulness. He caught Audrey's gaze, but quickly looked away. Forgiveness was not going to come easy.

Jane groaned at the sunlight coming through her window. She rolled over and looked at her alarm clock. It was almost noon. Her friends would be arriving at any moment. But she wasn't very excited.

She felt tired from crying herself to sleep the night before. She slowly sat up in bed and saw a note her mother had left her.

 _There's food on the table. I'll be at work all day. Love you, mom._

Jane scoffed. How could her mother move on so quickly from the events that happened the other day. Jane surely could not forget. She pulled up her pillow and picked up the yellow blanket she put underneath it. She knew what the small piece of fabric meant. A single tear fell into it.

Jane tried her hardest not to cry. She had cried entirely too much the last couple days. Yet she couldn't stop the tears that cascaded down her face. She buried her face into her pillow to choke down her sobs. It didn't matter. There was no one home. No one to hear her crying. She was alone. Like usual.

She slowly got out of her bed, still crying, and made her way to the secret room. Her mother had not bothered closing it, knowing there was no point anymore and Jane was sure to explore it again.

Jane stepped carefully into the room, almost afraid. Suddenly she felt the room was more quiet and colder than last time. It felt more... haunted.

She walked along the mountains of boxes and lightly ran her fingers on the labels, as they were in chronological order. Before her stood all the mementos of her childhood. It almost felt like a shrine to her. The thought made it all unnerving for Jane.

Looking around, she noticed that even though her mother had left the room open for her, things had been moved around. She distinctly remembered there were more boxes in the center of the room, and now there was only dust showing that they indeed had been there. What else was her mother trying to hide?

Jane started searching amongst the boxes for the ones that had been in the middle of the room. She found one of the larger boxes hidden underneath some boxes of letters.

It was ivory and unlike the others, wasn't covered completely in dust. It was beautifully ornately carved and she saw the engraving on the lid. H&A Forever. Those were her parents' initials.

She carefully opened the box and sneezed when the dust flew up. She looked and saw the pictures inside were of her parents wedding. She picked up one in particular that caught her eye. It was her mother and father smiling happily at the camera. But what caught her eye was her mother's dress. It looked very familiar. She'd seen that dress before.

She looked through the box and at all the pictures. There was no denying it now. She'd seen that dress.

She wore that dress.


	16. Broken

Fairy Godmother woke up bright and early, anticipating the arrival of the teens from their trip. She quietly walked past Jane's room on her way to the school. Her daughter was a mess, lying in her bed. The child had cried herself to sleep again. Fairy Godmother felt guilty about the secrets she has kept from her daughter. But it was too late to undo that. Now she hoped that Jane would forgive her enough to at least let her explain. But Jane was a stubborn child and had refused to talk to her for days.

And today was no different.

Mal was anxious as she signed in. She looked around the room of the gallery. Many students were placing their respective pieces in their designated spot. Everything was set up alphabetically. She looked for Green and saw that unfortunately it was at one of the tables near the center of the room. Great. Now she was more nervous.

She looked around the room again, hoping to see a familiar face. And she did.

"Hey Mal," Evan greeted, with an unbelievably large smile. "What a surprise to see you here."

Mal rolled her eyes. "Yeah. Like you didn't know I entered this year."

Evan let out an exaggerated laugh. "Ha. You're funny. I never knew you were so funny."

Mal tried to control her annoyance. "So what are you doing here? Last I heard, you're not competing."

Evan smiled and Mal swore she saw a twinkle. She wanted to wipe his annoying bright smile off his face. "I wanted to check out the talent this year," he explained with a wink. "And so far, I like what I see."

Mal bit her tongue. "Ok. I'm done with you right now. I'm gonna go look for my friends."

She walked around him and headed to the bathrooms, the one place she knew she could be away from him. She was so sick and tired of Evan. He wouldn't give up with his charming smile and obvious flirting. Sure he was handsome and kind, of not a bit overconfident. But she wasn't looking for a relationship. Her last one didn't end well. She didn't need another jerk.

Except for the fact that Ben wasn't a jerk. He was actually super sweet and great guy. Who obviously made a stupid mistake. But who hasn't? She's made many mistakes in her lifetime.

"Oh my god!" Mal exclaimed.

Sasha rushed over to her. She had seen Mal walk into the bathroom and rushed in at her yell. "Are you ok?"

Mal furiously wiped away the tears that were running down her cheek. "I'm such an idiot. And a hypocrite. And probably the worst person ever."

"What are you talking about?" Sasha asked, trying to comfort her.

"I'm talking about Ben," Mal said sobbing. "I was so unfair to him. He made a mistake and I was understandably upset. But I couldn't bring myself to completely forgive him. But when I messed up big time, he still loved me and supported me. But I couldn't do the same."

Mal slinked to the floor and pulled her knees to her chest. "What is wrong with me?"

Sasha crouched next to her, because there was no way she was sitting on the nasty bathroom floor. "Look, everyone makes mistakes. Clearly you have stuff to work on and deal with when you get home. But right now you have to set up your art piece because judging starts in 10 minutes. So wipe away your mascara and go out there and kick some art butt, ok?"

Mal nodded and got up off the floor. "You're right. One battle at a time."

Fairy Godmother stood ready to greet King Ben and his friends. The limo pulled up and the driver walked around to open the door. She expected the teens to come home refreshed and ready for the upcoming school year. That was not what she got.

Ben was the first to step out, fresh and happy like he always was. Chad was right after, rushing past Fairy Godmother to the bathrooms. After him the rest of the teens stepped out, all looking tired and stressed. Lastly Carlos and Lonnie helped Audrey out of the car. That was certainly not what Fairy Godmother expected.

"Oh dear!" She exclaimed. "What on earth happened?"

"Audrey may have broken her ankle," Ben explained.

"Oh dear! We must take her to the hospital at once!"

Audrey rolled her eyes. "I'm fine. See?" She tried to hobble forward but yelped in pain when she lost her balance and almost fell. Carlos and Jay quickly grabbed her arms and held her up.

Audrey stepped wrong and a surge of pain went up her leg. Her ankle had been fine the way back to Auradon. But of course her stubborn self had to go and ruin it. She was starting to get lightheaded from the pain and she felt like throwing up.

"Oh no, you are not fine!" Fairy Godmother insisted. "Jay would you be a dear and help me with her? We're going straight to the ER."

Jay sighed in defeat. "Do I have a choice?"

"No. Not really."

"Ben, sweetie, there's paperwork on your desk," Fairy Godmother said. "The rest of you can go unpack. I'll be back as soon as possible."

"Yep, it's definitely broken," Doc said. "Without the right medical treatment, your ankle is in terrible shape. Have you been resting at all?"

"Yes," Audrey lied.

"No you haven't!" Jay protested.

"Shut up!" Audrey said.

"Make me!" Jay hissed.

"Enough!" Fairy Godmother yelled.

"So how long will it take my ankle to heal?" Audrey asked Doc.

"By the looks of it, probably three to four weeks."

"What!" Audrey exclaimed.

"Audrey calm down," Fairy Godmother reprimanded.

"But cheer camp is in two weeks!" Audrey explained.

"Well it won't matter anyway," Doc said. "You can't cheer."

"Tell me about it," Jay snickered. Audrey glared at him.

"No," Doc sighed. "Audrey, even after your ankle heals, you won't be able to cheer. Your ankle broke I'm assuming from the first crack you heard. Because you haven't rested and kept injuring it, the bone kept breaking. You will probably need surgery to help fix the fractured pieces. But the damage has been done. You will probably never cheer again."

Audrey's face fell at the doctors words. Her eyes welled with tears at the realization that she could never cheer again. Doc excused himself and went with Fairy Godmother to fill out some paperwork. That left Jay and Audrey alone in the exam room.

Jay sat uncomfortably in his chair. He felt awkward and didn't know what to do. He saw that Audrey was crying on the table. He might've been mad at her, but he couldn't just sit there.

"Hey," he said awkwardly. "How you doing?"

Audrey sniffed. "How do you think I'm doing?" She snapped.

Jay winced at her words. He was irked at her tone, but understood she was just upset. He stood up and slowly walked over to her.

"Ok, I get you're upset-."

"Upset? Upset doesn't even cover it! I'm crushed!" Audrey cried. "Cheer is everything to me. It's my life. I've been cheering since I was four. And now I can't. My whole senior year is ruined."

Jay was speechless. He didn't know what to say. There was nothing he could say. What was done was done. No amount of words could change the fact that Audrey's ankle was in bad shape.

Jay awkwardly sat next to her on the exam table. He fiddled with his hands, waiting for Fairy Godmother to come back. He felt Audrey lay her head on his shoulder, crying softly. And he let her. Because he knew she needed it.

So they stayed like that, just waiting.


	17. Stories

Mal bit her nails in anticipation, watching as the judges slowly but surely made their way around. Her name was coming up soon. The three judges wouldn't say a thing. They'd look at the piece, jot down some notes and give each other a nod. The nonverbal communication was even more unnerving than if they had just spoke aloud.

She looked at her piece. It had come out better than she expected. Thought to be fair she didn't have high expectations for her piece. It was a portrait of her and her friends, half good, half bad. All done in spray paint. To ease her nerves, Mal looked around at the other entries.

She caught Tessa's gaze and glared as Tessa smirked. She gestured to her piece. Mal grit her teeth in anger. That should've been her piece.

Someone clearing their throat snapped Mal out of her thoughts. She looked at the three judges who looked impatiently at her.

Mal gulped and explained her piece. "I call it, 'The Isle of the Lost'. It represents me and my four friends. It shows that we're part Auradon and part Isle. Coming to Auradon we are no longer lost." Mal had rehearsed and rehearsed her lines. She was shaking. She'd never been so nervous before in her life.

The three judges nodded silently and wrote on their clipboards. As they walked away, Mal could've sworn she saw Mrs. Wellington wink at her. And it didn't go unnoticed by Tessa. Mal looked over to see her glaring.

Sasha and Vega ran up to her and hugged her.

"What's this for?" Mal laughed.

"We're just so proud of you!" Vega screamed. "Your piece is by far the best one!"

"Woah. This is sick!" Sachi said, friends in tow.

"Yeah, when Sasha said you were talented, she wasn't kidding." Ion stared in awe.

Mal blushed at the compliments she was receiving. But then she looked around the room and frowned. "But is it good enough to win?"

Sachi frowned. "Why are you so obsessed with winning? I mean winning is nice, but aren't you taking it a little to far?"

Mal sighed. "Maybe. But I want to accomplish something. On my own. Because of my talent and skill."

"What do you mean?" Higgins said.

"Before I came to Auradon I was 'Maleficent's daughter'" Mal explained. "People made allowances for me because my mom instilled fear in their hearts. Then when I came to Auradon I was a VK so expectations weren't very high."

"And then you started dating Ben," Sasha said, understanding.

"Exactly," Mal agreed. "Then I was some lady in waiting. People treated me differently because I was dating him. And maybe I didn't notice it at first. But now I do."

"What changed?" Vega asked.

Mal shrugged her shoulders. "I guess I realized I was being talked about as someone's this or someone's that. Here, for the first time, I'm just Mal. And I really like that. And I intend to keep it that way."

Carlos was ecstatic that he was reunited with Dude. The weeks away from the fur ball were practically unbearable . But as soon as he saw him, Dude jumped onto Carlos.

"The palace guards must have fed you too much, boy," Carlos chuckled. "You seem a lot heavier than I remember."

They collapsed onto his bed in a heap as Dude happily licked his face. Carlos laughed as Dude slobbered all over him. In his fit of laughter, Carlos didn't notice a visibly upset Jay walk in.

Jay plopped onto his bed and groaned, earning the attention of Carlos. "Oh you're back."

"Yeah," Jay sighed.

"What's wrong? How'd it go with Audrey?"

"Well I hope you had your fun because your little joke ruined Audrey's life," Jay snapped.

Carlos was taken aback. "Are you- are you mad at me?"

"Of course I'm mad at you!" Jay said, sitting up. "Audrey's ankle is in really bad shape. Because if your stupid prank, Audrey can't cheer."

"For how long?"

"Doc said probably never again."

Carlos frowned. "Oh my god. It's all my fault."

"Yep."

"I need to apologize!"

Jay rolled his eyes and got up off his bed. "I wouldn't suggest that right now."

"Why?"

"Because Audrey is not exactly in the best mood right now. And she'd likely kill you."

Now it was Carlos's turn to roll his eyes. "I can't just sit here and do nothing. She deserves a proper apology."

"Well give her time to cool off," Jay said, prepping to shower. He hasn't had time since they arrived. "Besides, don't you have homework or something?"

Carlos snapped his head to his desk and saw the pile of summer assignments he had to do. Jay chuckled and hopped into the bathroom.

"I forgot about that," Carlos sighed. "Guess that apology will just have to wait."

"Good call!" Jay yelled from the bathroom.

Carlos heard the shower turn on. He quickly packed his books into his bag and decided it'd be better to study in the library. It would be practically empty due to it being summer.

Jane aggressively tapped her pen against her textbook. She was trying to do her reading. But no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't focus. She was too upset.

Now she knew that Evie must've known something and kept it from her. How else would she have gotten that fabric?

Jane groaned and got up for a quick stretch. She had been trying to study for hours. At first she was doing great, but the more she got into her thoughts, the angrier she got.

She heard the soft creak if the front door of the library. She expected to be alone since it was summer vacation and hardly anybody studied, besides her. Well besides her and whoever this stranger was.

It was bringing to get dark out and Jane noticed. She quickly hid behind her chair and grabbed the first thing she could to clutch as a weapon. She picked up her pen.

 _Great_ , she thought. _This is such great protection._

She heard footsteps. They began walking in her direction. Jane could feel her heart pounding as she heard the footsteps get closer and closer. Suddenly her heart stopped. The footsteps had stopped. But from her position she saw two sneakers from below the table.

Mustering up all her courage she jumped out of her hiding place and screaming, chucked the pen at the other person.

"Ow!" She heard a familiar voice yell.

Jane stared with wide eyes at her victim. Carlos.

"Oh my gosh, Carlos! I'm so sorry!" Jane apologized.

Carlos chuckled. "It's okay. I probably deserved it."

Jane frowned. "Why would you say that?"

"It's a long story. So now that you're back, why didn't you greet us with your mom?"

"It's a long story."


	18. No More Secrets

"What do you mean a long story?" Jane asked.

"What do _you_ mean a long story?"

Jane rolled her eyes. "I asked you first."

"So I may have played an itty bitty prank on Audrey and she twisted her ankle."

"That doesn't sound that bad."

"Except that she then went on to fracture it like 3 times after that. And now she can't cheer."

"What!" Jane exclaimed. "That's awful."

Carlos sighed. "I know. And it's my fault."

"I'm sure you didn't mean for this to happen. Have you considered apologizing?" Jane tried to comfort.

"What's the point? It's not gonna change anything."

"Yes it will. It'll change how you feel. I bet she'd appreciate it."

"Maybe you're right."

"I'm always right," Jane smirked.

"So how was your summer?" Carlos said, changing the subject. "I'm assuming you're better because you're back."

Jane forced a smile. "Yeah. I'm cured. I guess. It's just good to be back. The therapist I had to talk to made me uncomfortable."

Carlos frowned. "What do you mean uncomfortable?"

"Jane!" Fairy Godmother exclaimed walking briskly into the library. "There you are. We need to talk!"

Jane rolled her eyes again. "There's nothing to talk about." She stood up from her place.

Fairy Godmother reached her and grabbed her hands. "Jane please."

Jane yanked her hands back. "I said no." She walked around her mother and out of the library. Fairy Godmother swallowed her tears and tried to hide her hurt.

"I see she is still upset," she said quietly.

"What happened?" Carlos asked.

"I'd rather not talk about it," Fairy Godmother turned to leave.

"And my mother?"

Fairy Godmother stopped in her tracks. She knew this would be brought up if she didn't leave quickly.

"Um," she stalled. "Well, I guess you could say- she's really-." She really didn't want to tell Carlos the truth, it would crush him. But lying is what caused her problem with Jane.

"Well?"

She wasn't going to make the same mistake twice. She gently sat beside Carlos. "Carlos, sweetie, you need to be brave ok? Your mother has caught pneumonia in her weakened state. She under artful observation by the doctors, but things are not going very well."

Carlos's eyes watered. He looked down at the floor and fiddled with his hand. He swallows the limo in his throat. "Does that mean-."

"No it does not mean she'll die!" Fairy Godmother exclaimed. "And don't be thinking of that! We must stay positive. Wouldn't your mother have wanted that?"

Carlos frowned. "I don't really know. All I know is I'm scared."

"I know. But just know your not alone."

"Thank you."

"For what?"

"For everything." Carlos slowly leaned against Fairy Godmother. She gently hugged him and comforted him. She knew this was hard for him. No matter what Cruella had done in her past, she was still his mother.

Jay silently sat on a chair, watching Audrey sleep. At the doctor, Audrey had some X-rays and tests done. She was put in a cast and on crutches. She was also put on some heavy prescription pain medicine. The dose was so strong that it made Audrey loopy and pass out. Jay had to carry her back to her room.

And that's where he was now, waiting for Fairy Godmother. She had said she needed to make her rounds but she would come back.

He jumped at Audrey stirring, but she did not wake up. Under regular circumstances he'd be bored out of his mind waiting. But these were not normal circumstances. This was someone he cared about, no matter how much he tried not to. No matter what she had said or done, or _hadn't said,_ he still cared for her.

He stared out the window. His mind was going a mile a minute . So much had happened in this past year. So much good, some bad. Crystal would be coming back. He didn't know how or even if he wanted to deal with that.

He glanced back at Audrey. She looked peaceful sleeping. Not at all like the spoiled princess everyone knew. She looked vulnerable. Jay chuckled. No mater how much Audrey cried or got upset, she never looked vulnerable. Not even the night-

He shook his head to rid himself of those thoughts. He was going back to pitying himself again. He wasn't going to let another girl break his heart. Not again.

Jane marched quickly to the girl dorms. She went into her room and pulled a garment bag from the back of her closet. She walked back out and down the hall.

Jane stormed into Mal and Evie's room, startling the latter. "Jane? What are you doing?"

Jane threw the garment bar on the bed and took the dress out . She threw that in the bed as well. "Beautiful dress Evie. But hey, you never did tell me where you got that fabric."

Evie chuckled nervously. "Well you never asked."

"Well I'm asking now."

"What does it matter?" Evie said nervously. She avoided Jane's piercing glare. "It's just some fabric I got somewhere."

"And where exactly is this somewhere? A hidden room? Maybe from my mother's wedding dress?" Jane said coldly.

Evie snapped her head up. "How did you know?"

Jane laughed humorlessly. "I can't believe you. You knew about my mother hiding stuff from me and you didn't say anything."

"I'm so sorry Jane!" Evie apologized. "Your mother begged me not to tell you about the room and the circumstances in which I acquired the fabric."

"I should've known."

"Jane please understand. Your mother wanted to use what remained of her dress for something beautiful. She loves you so much."

"What do you mean what remained?" Jane asked.

Evie mentally slapped herself, realizing she had said too much.

"Evie..."

"I can't."

"Please no more secrets."

"Jane.."

Jane looked up at Evie, close to tears. "Evie I thought we were friends. Don't you think I deserve to know?"

Evie couldn't resist Jane's puppy dog eyes. "Jane I can't tell you. I promised your mother."

"And what about me? Why would my mother not want me to know? Why is she keeping so many secrets from me?"

"Jane please. Understand your mother did it because she thought she was protecting you," Evie pleaded.

Jane scoffed. She snatched her dress if the bed and made a beeline for the door. "And what were you trying to do? Protect me too? I'm not a little girl anymore. I don't need protecting."

"It's about your father!" Evie blurted out before she could stop herself.

"What?"


	19. Unexpected

"You called for me?" Evie said as she knocked on the open door of Ben's office. She almost tripped over a stack of books on the floor.

Ben looked up from his paperwork. He motioned to the chair in front of his desk. "Yes, please take a seat."

Evie carefully made her way around the clutter littering the floor. "What happened in here?"

"Well things have accumulated while we've been gone, and with the new school year approaching I'm swamped with work." Ben gestured to the piles upon piles of paperwork on his desk.

Even moved some books from the chair and sat down, a cloud of dust flying. "I can see that," she coughed. "Why'd you call for me?"

"To apologize."

"Apologize?"

"Yes. I owe you a proper apology ," Ben sighed. "The play. The stupid kiss. For trying to make you keep it a secret. Everything. Because of my mistake, I lost my girlfriend and you almost lost your best friend. I'm so sorry Evie."

Evie smiled. "Thank you. I already forgave but I appreciate the apology: Maybe we can finally put everything behind us."

Ben laughed half heartedly. "Yeah. Definitely."

"I know you still feel guilty though."

"It's Mal." Ben sighed. "I miss her like crazy. And I've apologized like a hundred times. And she said she forgives me, but she can't be with me."

"I know she had her reasons. But don't be disheartened, because I know Mal still cared about you," Evie said. "You have to prove to her that she can trust you again."

"I have to win her back!"Ben suddenly exclaimed, jumping up from his desk. The papers on his desk went flying.

He ran over them and hugged Evie. He picked her up and spun her around. "You're a genius!"

Ben scrambled out of the room, leaving behind a stunned Evie.

"Oh no, he's going to do something stupid," she said, running after him.

Jay groaned as the light shining through the window hit his face. He tried getting up but felt a pain in his neck. He opened his eyes and was hit with the unfamiliar pinkness of the room. He looked to his right and saw Audrey sound asleep. He must've fallen asleep, because Fairy Godmother never came.

A soft knock at the door caused Audrey to stir. Fairy Godmother quietly walked in. "Oh dear, I'm so sorry. I got so sidetracked yesterday, I forgot you were here. Audrey's parents have been contacted, but unfortunately they are out of the country and won't return until Sunday."

"So who's going to take care of Audrey?"

"Well until the nurses come back on Thursday, I'm not sure. I'm sure you can find one of your friends to help can't you?" Fairy Godmother smiled. "I'd do it myself but I'm so awfully busy. Maybe Evie could do it, or Lonnie, or-."

"I'll do it," Jay found himself blurting.

Fairy Godmother looked at him shocked, but that soon changed to the biggest smile Jay had ever seen.

"Oh that's so noble and kind of you!" Fair Godmother exclaimed, pinching Jays cheek. "You are such a dear.

Fairy Godmother released his cheek and he rubbed where she pinched. Fairy Godmother has quite the grip.

She went back into the hall to retrieve a cart full of supplies. "Audrey has her surgery tomorrow. She won't be too happy about it, but they need to put screws in her ankle to help the bone heal properly."

Jay grimaced. That sounded painful.

"The medication they'll give her is very strong for her pain, so she'll sleep a lot. You just have to make sure she's comfortable and off her feet. Helping her to the bathroom may be challenging, so try to ask others for help, especially when the time comes that Audrey needs to bathe."

Jay nodded furiously. "Yes ma'am. I'll make sure Evie or Lonnie help."

"I would hope so," Fairy Godmother grinned cheekily. "I need to go now. Busy day. Good luck!"

"Thank you."

"And have fun," Fairy Godmother winked as she closed the door behind her.

Jay turned back to sleep on the bed next to Audrey's, when he felt a sharp pain in his foot. He had stubbed his toe.

"God da***t!" He cursed through his teeth.

"Jay?" A groggy Audrey said, wiping her eyes.

"Ssh.." Jay said, trying to get her back to sleep. "This is all a dream. Go back to sleep."

Audrey rubbed her eyes and settled back into her bed. She fell back into a medicinally induced sleep.

Jay sighed. What had he gotten himself into.

Mal nibbled at her pizza, anxiously staring at the stage.

"Mal, eat something," Vega said. "I know you're nervous but you can't go up to accept your award if you faint from hunger.

Mal grumbled and unwillingly ate her pizza. "I'm just so nervous. The judges should have announced who won by now. What's taking them so long?"

"Maybe they were trying to find a flaw in your project," Higgins joked.

Sachi giggled. "Then we'd be here all day."

Mal smiled. "Thanks guys. I appreciate it and - oh here they come! Everyone shut up!"

"You were literally the only one talking," Sasha deadpanned. Everyone shushed her. She rolled her eyes.

Mrs Wellington slowly made her way to the podium. The room was absolutely silent. You could hear a pin drop.

She cleared her throat. "I know you're all anxious to hear who won this year's showcase. But before I get to that, I think you _all_ need to hear this."

The room sat in stunned silence. No one had any idea what she was talking about.

Mrs Wellington scanned the room and her eyes landed directly on Mal. Mal gulped. Oh no.

"This showcase is meant to display your unique, _original_ artwork," Mrs Wellington continued. Her gaze didn't leave Mal. "That being said, this institution does not, by any means, tolerate plagiarism and the stealing of one's ideas!"

Mal gasped. What was happening? She turned her head to see Tessa smirking at her. What the-

"Miss Green!" Mrs Wellington barked. "Would you please make your way to the stage?"

Mal looked around as all eyes were on her now. Slowly she made her way to the stage. And her doom.


	20. Forgiveness

Jane had been staring up at the sky for who nows how long. After her talk with Evie, she couldn't turn off her brain. A million thoughts were running through her head and giving her a headache. Yet she couldn't shake them from her mind.

 _Flashback_

 _Jane scoffed. She snatched her dress if the bed and made a beeline for the door. "And what were you trying to do? Protect me too? I'm not a little girl anymore. I don't need protecting."_

 _"It's about your father!" Evie blurted out before she could stop herself_.

" _What?"_

 _Evil had her hand over her mouth. She couldn't believe she just said that._

 _"Evie please answer me," Jane pleaded._

 _Evie took a deep breath. "Ok, ok. You deserve the truth. What your mother didn't want you to know is that when you were two your home caught fire and unfortunately your father didn't make it."_

 _"I understand that my father passed," Jane said. "What I don't understand is why it was supposed to be kept secret, unless - unless I had something to do with it. Evie did I start the fire?"_

 _Evie shook her head. "No."_

 _"Then why is this some big secret?"_

 _"Jane," Evie sighed. "Your father escaped. But he went back inside for you."_

 _"What?" Jane said, tears welling in her eyes. "No. No! That can't be!"_

 _"Jane-."_

 _"No!" Jane cried. "I need to get away from here. Far, far away."_

 _End of flashback_

Jane had ran and ran until she finally couldn't run anymore. She had collapsed in the Cove. She was so exhausted, she just stayed looking up at the sky.

And so she had remained in that position for the past hour, just staring at nothing but thinking about everything. She had tried looking at clouds, but her mind kept asking a million questions she couldn't answer.

She couldn't even cry. She tried. But she couldn't get more than a few tears. What was wrong with her? She wasn't herself. She hadn't been like herself in a while. She hadn't been okay I a while.

She jumped at the sound of rustling leaves, signifying that someone was approaching. Only two people new of her spot, Ben and Carlos. Unfortunately, it was neither of them.

"There you are!" Her mother exclaimed, running to hug her. Jane dodged her and started walking briskly away.

Fairy Godmother had had enough. "Jane! Stop this instant!"

"You can't tell me what to do!"

"I'm your mother!"

"Well then act like it!" Jane cried.

Fairy Godmother gasped. "Jane! What has gotten into you? Such behavior will not be tolerated or-."

"Or what?" Jane challenged.

"This isn't the Jane that I know."

"Well maybe I don't want to be that Jane!"

"What?"

Jane felt all the fight leave her body. She fell to the ground, sobbing. Fighting with her mother was exhausting. "I don't want to keep doing this anymore."

Fairy Godmother knelt down to her. "Where is this coming from? You don't want to be yourself? Why ever not?"

"Because, the soft spoken timid Jane that everyone knows is not who I want to be," Jane explained. "I don't want to be seen as someone fragile or naive. I don't want people to think it's okay to keep things from me."

Fairy Godmother sighed at the last part. "I'm guessing that includes me?"

"Evie told me," Jane said. "About the dress and father."

"Oh."

"Yeah. Oh."

Fairy Godmother grabbed Jane's hand. "I'm so sorry for everything I've put you through these past few days," she apologized. "I kept thinking that you weren't ready to hear the truth. But I know now that I'm the one that's not ready."

"Why? I just want to know the truth."

"I know. And the truth is, yes your father died in the fire that took our home. You probably don't remember because you were so young."

"Is it true that he died trying to save me?" Jane asked quietly. She looked down at her hands.

Fairy Godmother gave her hand a light squeeze. "He had thought you were still inside, so he ran in to get you, but a firefighter had already helped you escape. Before you father could get out, a beam fell and blocked the door, trapping your f-father." Fairy Godmother sniffed. Jane looks up to see her mother crying.

"It's ok mom, you don't have to."

"No. You need to know. The lack of oxygen and the heat were too much. He was pronounced dead before he even made it to the hospital."

Jane wiped away a tear from her mother's face. "And the blanket? Were you..?"

"Yes. I was pregnant. You were going to have a little brother. TJF. Timothy James Flitter. But I had inhaled so much smoke my body shut down. You had some minor burns and scrapes. But we were both in the hospital a while. I have some second degree burns on my abdomen. Fortunately I pulled through, but for a price. I lost the baby. I lost the love of my life. But I didn't lose you. So from that day forward I vowed to protect you and keep you safe until my last breath."

"Mom. I had no idea."

"I'm sorry if I have been at times overbearing or overprotective, but Jane honey, you're all that I have left."

Jane was crying at this point too. She embraced her mother. "No I'm sorry. I've been ungrateful and disgusting. You didn't deserve to be treated the way I've treated you. I was just upset because of all the secrets. Do you forgive me?"

Fairy Godmother smiled and kissed her daughter. "Of course I forgive you. I just hope you can forgive me for all the secrets I've kept. From this moment on I want us both to be 100% honest with each other. I want to be someone you can confide in. Okay?"

Jane thought about the spell book she took. She couldn't possibly tell her mom about it. She'd be shipped off again to who knows where. She crossed her fingers behind her back.

"Of course."

People say their whole life flashes before their eyes the moment before they die. Well for Mal it happened as she approached the stage. The last time this many people were looking at her like this was when she arrived at Auradon. The hate and distrust and utter shock of the other students was unnerving. Mal could vaguely hear the murmurs start. Of course she plagiarized. She was a VK. It's not like she had any actual talent. She probably used a spell to enchant her artwork.

Mal has been called a lot of things in her life. A liar, a crook, a dirt good for nothing hoodlum. She had been feared and hated and judged. Heck she'd even been spat at. But no one had ever insulted her artwork or called her a cheat. She was a hoodlum, but with her art, no one ever messed with it.

She felt hot angry tears prick at her eyes. But no, she couldn't cry here, not in front of everyone one. She wouldn't give them the satisfaction. She finally made it to the stage and meekly climbed the steps.

"Face the crowd," Mrs Wellington instructed. Mal did as she was told. She bit her lip, trying to not show weakness. She tried her hardest to remain stone faced and not let her true emotions show.

"Oh no!" Vega gasped quietly. "This isn't fair!"

"What can we do?" Sachi whispered.

"Everyone," Mrs Wellington smiled. "May I present this year's showcase winner!"

The room erupted in cheers and the tension had been lifted. Mal stood shocked. She didn't know what to do, she didn't expect it.

"I won?" She asked, dumbfounded.

"Congratulations," Mrs Wellington said, handing her her plaque. They posed to take a picture and Mal ran to her friends.

"Dude congrats!" Ion said. Higgins hugged her so hard he lifted her off the ground. Sasha and Vega were so proud of their new friend. Everyone was celebrating. Well almost everyone.

Tessa marched angrily from across the room. She yanked Mal to face her. "How dare you! I was to win. Me. I can't believe you beat me!"

"I can't believe you stole Mal's idea!" Sasha yelled.

"Oh please. You have no way to prove it." Tessa sneered. "As far as everyone knows, it was my idea."

"Is it now?" Mrs. Wellington said, coming from behind Tessa.

"Mrs Wellington, it's not what it sounds like!" Tessa tried to explain.

"Really?" Mrs Wellington said . "Because it sounds like one of my brightest most trustworthy students has proven herself to not be so trustworthy."

"Mrs Wellington if you'd allow me to explain-."

"I shall not hear a word of it," Mrs Wellington said. "From this moment forward you are no longer welcomed at this camp."

"Mrs Wellington," Mal said calmly. "Please don't ban her."

"And why is that Miss Green?"

"Because the goal of this camp is to allow students to express their creativity and passion for art, is it not?"

"Yes, however-."

"Well, I may not know her very well, but everyone says that Tessa is one of the most passionate people about art," Mal smiled. "So please kick her out because of a mistake. Everyone deserves second chances."

To everyone's surprise, Mrs Wellington let out the largest smile that anyone had ever seen. No one had made the woman smile like Mal did.

"I believe you are right, Miss Green. It takes a lot of maturity to come to the decision that you have." Mrs Wellington turned to Tessa. "I hope this lapse in judgment is an isolated incident and that I won't have to make a difficult decision again."

Tessa nodded her head. "Of course. I won't let you down."

Mrs Wellington smiled and walked away to enjoy the rest of the event. Tessa turned to Mal.

"Why did you do that? Why were you so nice, when I've been nothing but mean to you?"

"Everyone deserves a second chance. A chance to forgive. I just hope maybe we can end this summer on good terms."

Tessa smiled. "I'd like that. I'm so sorry for how I've treated you. It's just art is my passion. I've always been the best. And suddenly I wasn't the best. But it wasn't fair of me to be so mean. If anyone deserves the showcase win, it's you."

"Thank you. Art is my passion too. Maybe we can be friends?"

"Friends." Tessa laughed. Mal giggles. Soon enough everyone was laughing and talking. They enjoyed the rest of their night.

Mal thought about her words that night as she lay awake.

 _Everyone deserves second chances._


	21. Mother's Intuition

"What's the emergency?" Doug rushed into Evie's room. "I just got your text. I ran as fast as I could."

"It's Ben," Evie said, getting up from her bed. "I can't find him anywhere. He got the idea of winning back Mal and ran out of his office. I tried following him but his beast senses kicked in and I lost him. He's surprisingly fast."

"That's what this is about?" Doug said incredulously. "I thought something was actually wrong."

Eve is playfully smacked him. "This serious Doug. What if Ben does something stupid and ends up embarrassing himself and doesn't get Mal back? There goes our OTP."

Doug tried to calm her down. "I doubt Mal wouldn't take him back for him doing something stupid. Are we gonna forget the tourney game where he serenaded her?"

Evie laughed."Oh god, who can forget?"

"And Mal still liked him. So we shouldn't worry about them."

"But-."

"No buts Evie. We need to let our friends work out for themselves. It worked for Chad and Lonnie."

"But what about Bal and Jaudrey and Jarlos!" Evie whined.

"What? What are you talking about?"

"Those are their ship names," Evie said matter of factly.

"You sound crazy right now," Doug chuckled.

"I want my friends to be as unbelievably happy as we are," Evie said, grabbing Doug's hand. "Wouldn't it be nice for all of us to finally be with that special someone?"

"Evie, I love you, but you have to let everyone deal with it themselves," Doug said, wrapping his arms around her waist. Evie pecked his lips.

"I don't want to," she pouted. Doug scoffed and dipped her. He started leaning in..

"Oh am I interrupting something?" Ben said, eyes wide.

His sudden appearance startled Doug, who let go of Evie. Evie fell to the ground with a loud thud. Ben and Doug both raced over to help her up. Evie stood up and fixed her dress and hair.

"Yeah, Ben, you kind of did," she scowled.

Ben reddened at ruining an intimate moment. "I'm sorry, but I wanted to ask for your help. Both of you."

"With what?" Doug and Evie said simultaneously.

"It's about Mal."

"Ooh! Do you need help with your grand gesture?" Evie squealed.

"Yeah. No one knows Mal better than you do."

"Oh this is amazing! I have so many ideas!" Evie took Ben's hand and dragged him out of the room, chattering away about her whole plan. Doug quickly followed suit.

"This is going to be interesting."

Audrey woke up groggily after her operation. She looked around to see she was in a stark white room. Her hospital room.

"Oh good, you're up," Jay said from across the room. He was sitting in a chair watching a sports game in the tv. He was eating a pudding. "Hey I hope you don't mind; I kind of ate your pudding."

"Where am I?" Audrey asked, still adjusting. "I feel like I've slept for days."

"Maybe not days, but definitely a long time."

"What time is it?"

"Like 3."

"Wow, I've slept well over 24 hours."

"Yep,"Jay replied, finishing up his pudding. "The doctor said the operation was success and they put screws in your ankle. I personally think that sounds painful and gross."

Audrey rolled her eyes. "I guess that explains the hospital and subtle throbbing in my ankle. What are you doing here?"

"I'm your official caretaker until your parents arrive. They should be here soon. Their plane landed an hour ago and they finally returned Fairy Godmothers calls." Jay explained. "Fairy Godmother was so busy, I offered to help."

"Oh."

"Yeah."

"Thank you, I guess," Audrey said awkwardly. She felt awful about the way he treated him and he was still being nice to her. "Listen, Jay."

"No." He interrupted her. "No more talking about you know what. It's in the past. Let's just focus on you getting better and move on with our lives."

"I was just gonna ask if you could get me some more pudding."

"Oh."

"Yeah."

"Sure," Jay said, springing up from his seat and heading out the door. "What kind?"

"Any kind will do."

"You should have not said that," Jay smirked. He winked at her and shut the door.

Jane felt a wave of relief knowing the truth and forgiving her mother. She didn't think their relationship would ever be the same, but at least she knew now that her mother always had her best interests at heart.

She was currently in her room. She pulled out a measuring tape from under her mattress. She was about to measure herself, when she heard a knock at the door.

She threw the tape to hide it and scurried to open the door. There stood Carlos with a picnic basket.

"Hi," she said, slightly out of breath. "What are you doing here?"

"I thought maybe you and I could go on a picnic," Carlos said, turning red.

"As in a date?" Jane asked, half hoping.

Carlos flushed. "Um, no as friends."

Jane tried hiding her disappointment. "Yeah I know. I was joking."

Carlos chuckled nervously. "Everyone is super busy and I thought it'd be nice for us to catch up; enjoy the rest of the summer."

Jane smiled and grabbed her purse. "Well then, let's go."

Audrey waited for Jay to come back with her pudding when a nurse walked in with her parents.

"Oh my baby," Aurora ran up to her and hugged her tightly. Her father followed suit. "I was so worried about you."

"How are you doing sweetheart?" Her father asked.

"I'm doing fine," Audrey replied. "I'm just glad you're here."

"Oh honey, we would've been here sooner," her mother apologized. "But we didn't have reception and when Fairy Godmother finally reached our hotel, we still had a long flight and a long drive here."

"Well what's important now is that you heal," Phillip said.

Everyone jumped as the door swung open. Jay walked in, arms full of pudding.

"So you didn't say any specific kind, so I brought all I could find. You got your classic vanilla and chocolate, butterscotch, heck even tapioca-," Jay stopped in his tracks at seeing Audrey had visitors. "Oh. Hello."

"And you are?" Phillip asked, staring Jay down.

"Um, mom, dad, this is Jay," Audrey explained.

Jay messily put down the pudding and extended his hand out. "How do you do?"

Phillip begrudgingly shook his hand after looks from Aurora and Audrey.

Jay tried to ignore Phillip glaring at him and turned to Audrey. "Well it looks like your folks are here so I'm just gonna go. I'll let Fairy Godmother know."

He grabbed his things of the chair and headed out.

"Jay," Audrey called after him.

Jay stuck his head through the door. "Yeah?"

"Thank you."

Jay smiled and saluted. "My pleasure."

Audrey giggled and looked back at her parents. Her mother had a mischievous look in her eyes and her dad frowned.

"So who was that young man?" Her mother casually asked.

"That was Jay, mother. He's a friend from school. He's a VK. But he's nice." Audrey said. "He was helping keep me company until you arrived."

"Are you two a couple?" Her mother smirked.

Audrey stared, shocked at her mother. "Mom! What? No! We are not a couple! How could you say that?"

"Well it's good you're not dating him," her father said. Audrey frowned.

"Why is that?"

"I don't like him. Messy hair, dark clothes, carefree attitude. You need to find yourself a respectable gentleman."

"He seemed like a gentleman to me. And he was very respectful," Aurora countered. "He seems like a polite young man."

"Well it doesn't matter anyway," Phillip said. "Audrey's not dating him anyway. I'm going to go for a coffee. Would you like anything dear?"

"No thank you," Aurora said. She waited for Phillip to leave before speaking again. "Ok, now that your father is gone, you can tell me. Are you and Jay a couple?"

"Mother, I already said no."

"Why not?"

"Mother."

"He seems to be smitten by you."

"Mom."

"And you seem to enjoy his company."

"Mom. Stop. Please!" Audrey blurted our, crimson with embarrassment. "I don't want to talk about it. It's complicated."

"So you do like him?" Her mother smirked. "I knew it."

"Maybe a little, but father can never find out," Audrey said. "You know how father and my grandmother are about keeping things traditional. Father wants me to wed someone of my own kind."

"Yes, well your father is very old fashioned," Aurora said. "And to contradict him is very serious. He'd never allow it or give his blessing. But don't worry darling, your secret is safe with me."

"Thanks mom," Audrey hugged her mother.

"Now let's talk about your crush on this Jay."

"Mom!"


End file.
